[Submitted via press release]
JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT BETWEEN SABC GCEO AND ACTING COO
The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Ms. Lulama Mokhobo and Acting Chief Operations Officer (COO) Mr. Hlaudi Motsoeneng, have noted with concern, the malicious report in Sunday’s Sunday World newspaper titled ‘SABC faces new crisis’ and previous reports from the same paper.
The article maliciously and strongly implies that there is tension and division, between the GCEO and Acting COO, following the resignations of two key senior managers, and this could not be further from the truth.
The fact that senior managers leave the SABC does not imply that the organisation is in crisis. Like any other company, employees have the free choice and will to resign from an organisation, to pursue other career avenues.
The two parties would like to put it on record that there has been no ‘fallout’ as suggested in the article, and have worked well together since the GCEO joined the SABC to lead the organisation. The decisions that any of the two make, are made after consultation with each other, and are in accordance with the policies and regulations of the SABC.
As key leaders in the organisation, they have stated that they share the same vision to continue making the public service broadcaster, deliver on its mandate to the South African public, and are thus baffled at the reports that the Acting COO has made “unauthorized executive decisions and pronouncement that have had costly financial implications”.
To the contrary the financial health of the SABC is improving as a result of the cooperative working relationship between the GCEO and Acting COO.
The GCEO is the driver and the Acting COO is the engine of the organisation.
In addition the SABC Board has made no statement to the effect that it has “no confidence in the ability of the GCEO to lead the Organisation”.
It is therefore misleading to suggest that they are not in agreement about how the organisation should move forward.