Female SABC worker accuses SABC News boss Jimi Matthews of alleged physical violence, verbal and psychological attack.

A female SABC worker has laid a charge of assault at the South African Police Service and at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) against the SABC's head of news Jimi Matthews.

The woman, in charge of the SABC's outside broadcasting staff, who laid the charge at Cape Town Central Police Station, alleges that she was physically assaulted as well as verbally and psychologically attacked by Jimi Matthews during the SABC's coverage of president Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address on 12 February.

The CCMA complaints alleges that the woman, "was victimised, harassed and assaulted verbally, physically and psychologically by a male executive manager following a technical glitch beyond her control or that of the crew she supervised".

She was allegedly threatened "with more deliberate and purposeful violence".

Tuwani Gumani, the general secretary of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (Mwasa) asked the SABC's famously matricless chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the SABC's general executive of human capital services, Jabulani Mabaso, to suspend Jimi Matthews in a letter TV with Thinus has seen.

Tuwani Gumani wrote to the SABC executives, saying that "Jimi Matthews stands accused of alleged impropriety by a junior employee and female colleague he had allegedly deemed irresistably fit to accost, assault and threaten, verbally and otherwise during the fracas surrounding the State of the Nation Address of 12 February 2015."

"Whereas the alleged incidences happened during working hours, on SABC premises and in the full view of other employees, there has been no action on the part of the SABC to address the violation and transgression of its own and national policies regarding improper interpersonal conduct on the part of the head of SABC News."

Tuwani Gumani asked the SABC to "formally caution and to suspend Jimi Matthews with immediate effect".

The SABC didn't respond to a media enquiry seeking comment on the matter and asking whether Jimi Matthews has been suspended.

BREAKING. 'The SABC has become a tired joke among its own staff and its choice-starved audiences," says Mwasa trade union.

"The SABC has become a tired joke among its own staff, its choice-starved audiences, its industry peers and financial benefactors."

So says the Media Workers Association of South Africa (Mwasa) which is slamming the beleaguered South African public broadcaster, following a scathing independent skills report on the SABC conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Yesterday in a hastily convened press conference following the barrage of press following the skills audit report, the SABC  claimed the report is old, although it never refuted the facts regarding the lack of qualifications at the broadcaster.

"The singular excuse presented by the SABC is the insulting, idiotic claim that the report is 'outdated'. The staff of the SABC should be treated with respect and not with such contempt and disdain," says Tuwani Gumani, the secretary general of Mwasa. "It is abhorrable that the leadership of the SABC would demean the staff in such a manner".

"The report simply confirms what is and has been known as irrefutable fact inside and outside the SABC across the country and abroad," says Mwasa.

"While there are many skilled individuals within the employ of the SABC, they are victimised, persecuted and prosecuted for their qualifications, demonstrable skills and insistence on the maintenance of professional and ethical standards".

"Boasting an extensive hoard of highly remunerated human resources management consultants, the SABC fails dismally to meet basic human resource management standards, to keep records, to screen candidates for recruitment and placement, to manage payroll, to determine training needs and to provide employee wellness programmes in general."

"The acting chief operations officer (COO), along with many others employed at the SABC has no matric and other verifiable post-matric qualifications," says Tuwani Gumani about the famously matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"How everyone glosses over the destructive impact and effect of the role played by this incumbent is inexplicable but inexcusable."

Tuwani Gumadi says "the SABC must be placed under administration of one form or another to salvage it from the inexcusable incompetence demonstrated by those who would treat South Africans as retarded, moronic and idiotic".

"Ideally, the SABC must be transformed into a fully fledged public-owned chapter 9 institution to be freed from direct political and other vested interests".