SABC news staff members in Free State and Northern Cape offices have sent a scathing letter of complaint to the broadcaster’s CEO Nomsa Chabeli accusing their provincial boss of nepotism and corruption.
In the letter sent to Chabeli on December 11 last year, concerned SABC news employees accused the broadcaster’s Free State and Northern Cape provincial editor, Mangaliso Radebe of intimidating and victimising staff.
The staff also allege that Radebe employed a girlfriend as his personal assistant despite her performing badly in the job interview.
“When this post was advertised and people were shortlisted, [Ms M…] did not make the cut as one of the interview candidates. Mangaliso opposed the list and insisted that M… be included as a person from Northern Cape and she was included in the second candidate list.
“She performed the worst of all candidates during interviews,” the staff members wrote in the letter. They further alleged that the woman was hired despite not knowing SABC systems, while there were candidates who understood the systems and were SABC employees facing retrenchment.
The complainants further claim Radebe used his SABC laptop to help the woman prepare for the interview in the broadcaster’s Kimberley office.
“One guy in the SABC in Northern Cape was ordered to make sure that the connection during interviews does not fail. The above allegations can be proven easily through getting interview records on matrix since the interviews were done online, as to how each candidate was scored,” reads the letter.
The staff also claimed that the woman was incompetent in her role, which includes booking of SABC news crew members.
Sunday World has established that Radebe will be leaving the SABC in June to pursue other interests.
The staff told Chabeli that they sent the letter to her as a serious concern and hoped that she would investigate and assist.
The employees also stated in the letter that they used the anonymous corruption line before and also brought allegations to the former SABC group
executive of news, Moshoeshoe Monare, who left the broadcaster in December.
However, they claim no action was taken.
“Most avenues within the SABC as an organisation cannot be trusted. We are coming to you as a last resort.
“We trust that you will consider this as a matter of urgency and assist,” said the staff in the letter to Chabeli.
Radebe told Sunday World he was not aware of the allegations and referred further enquiries to SABC spokesperson Mmoni Ngubane.
Ngubane said: “The SABC would like to categorically state that there are no issues pertaining to human resources that are swept under the carpet as alleged.
“It must be noted that the SABC is guided by its human resources policies and prescripts to address any concerning matters, and there are no exceptions.
“As a matter of principle, the SABC is under no obligation to discuss any matter relating to an employer-employee relationship with the media.
“There are duly constituted forums and committees for the SABC to discuss human resources-related matters, and Sunday World is not one of them.”
