Johannesburg – Phathiswa Magopeni is not going to take her dismissal from her position as group executive for News and Current Affairs lying, she intends to challenge it.
On Friday the SABC announced that Magopeni had been fired with immediate effect.
In December last year, the SABC instituted an open disciplinary process where Magopeni was found guilty of misconduct for failing to prevent the broadcast, airing and publication of an interdicted Special Assignment episode.
Magopane said there was political meddling and interference by the directors of the broadcaster.
Speaking to News, Magopeni said she believes proper processes were not followed, and furnished us with supporting letters between her and the SABC.
In a media statement, SABC spokesperson Gugu Ntuli said Magopeni was afforded an opportunity to submit mitigating factors and to address aggravating factors identified by the SABC, in line with the rule of natural justice and the audi alteram partem principle of listening to both sides.
“In the absence, Magopeni’s mitigating factors, the SABC concluded that there is a breakdown in the trust relationship between her and the SABC. Consequently, Magopeni’s services have been terminated with immediate effect and she has been informed,” said Ntuli.
However, Magopeni said the entire process was irregular.
“Nazeer Cassim only asked for closing arguments which is part of the process. What he would have done after determining that on the basis of all the information he has he finds me guilty. The next step in the disciplinary code of SABC is to then ask for mitigation and aggravation factors from both sides and that happens once you have been found guilty as an employee. Only a chair of a disciplinary process can do that, no one else. Cassim skipped that step, from closing arguments, pronouncing on guilt and recommending sanctions.
“Cassim was supposed to have taken closing arguments, pronounced on guilt, asked for mitigation, then a sanction. You find a person guilty before you pass a judgment. That never happened. What he (Cassim) did was recommend a warning, then SABC instead of confirming a warning or coming up with a different solution, on December 28 they wrote a letter to me, they asked me for a mitigation and that was supposed to be done by Cassim.
“The entire process is irregular, I responded but they make it sound like I did not respond. I said according to the company’s own disciplinary code what you wanted me to do is irregular. So on Friday they decided to dismiss me. You don’t dismiss a person on the basis of trust, this is not performance related. It is not even related to the disciplinary now, it’s about broken trust. I have never seen such a mess. There was a political meddling, not only that, but also interference by directors of the company,” she said.
Magopeni said the SABC had been under pressure over the last few days.
“The Campaign for Freedom of Expression led by Anton Harber and Sanef are asking the SABC that my grievance against Group CEO Madoda Mxakwe and executives for political interference must be heard publicly. The SABC is being dodgy because it does not want to open the process to the public, and this is a total interference by the directors of the company. They were under pressure and on Friday they ended up announcing a committee that needed to adjudicate my grievance, which is wrong because the Broadcasting Act says when there is a complaint against a director, it goes to parliament to do the inquiry, but the SABC wants to do it internally through flouting processes again,” Mogopeni said.
She said on Friday she asked when her grievance case would be held because it’s already 60 days since she submitted her grievance.
“The whole thing about kicking me out means that the grievance falls off. The fact that chairperson and the CEO interfered politically in editorial processes means the grievance will not be heard now that I am gone, and that is what has been achieved because I am not there to provide evidence. There are other issues of politics in the mix, this is a complex toxic thing,” Magopeni said.
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Political Bureau