Ed Herbst: SABC’s three-ring circus. Faith’s torrid time in Makhado.

Parliament could see fireworks on Wednesday as they’re expected to dismantle the current SABC board. Veteran journalist Ed Herbst, a master at putting the historical pieces together, sets about providing a chronological order of events around current Communications Minister Faith Muthambi. She’s integral to the whole process on as she’s the third element in the ‘SABC’s three-ring circus’, with Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the malfunctioning board the other two. Herbst steps back to a time when Muthambi was the municipal manager of Makhado. Some telling incidents took place. – Stuart Lowman

By Ed Herbst*

The defamation case of a former municipal manager of the Makhado Municipality, Ms Faith Muthambi, suffered a setback last week when the case was struck off the High Court roll and she was ordered to pay costs to the second defendant, Zoutnet Publishers. – Defamation case against newspapers suffers setback Zoutpansberger 24/9/2010

On Wednesday the African National Congress will set about pushing yet another bunch of deployed cadres off the Gravy Train, in this case the remaining members of the inquorate and risibly dysfunctional SABC board.

Veteran journalist Ed Herbst
Veteran journalist Ed Herbst

This is something in which it is well versed because the military acronym, Snafu also applied to its previous SABC boards and, in fact, to every endeavour in which it involves itself.

In 2008 it bade farewell to one of its SABC deployees, Snuki Zikalala who, two years earlier, had been voted the world’s worst news executive by Honest Reporting. Zikalala was subsequently voted by Alexander Parker as one of the 50 people who had most stuffed up South Africa and to the people who had the misfortune to work in the SABC news department when he was in charge, he was known as Zero Sum Zikalala.

This time around the ANC’s end game is similar – to put an end to the embarrassing circus that it has imposed upon us by getting rid of the man who is so loved by Baba, the state broadcaster’s Clown Prince – he of the bloodshot eyeballs, the puce-purple suits and the grandiloquent and self-aggrandising declarations.

Ring master Hlaudi Motsoeneng would have us believe that he is hero-worshipped in the cities and that it is “worse in the rural areas” – all this while his 90% local music content edict wreaks increasing havoc on the beleaguered state broadcaster’s bottom line.

What Motsoeneng chooses not to remind us of is that even in the rural areas, the SABC’s commissioned research, Project Kindle, shows that the vast majority of South Africans think its television news bulletins are a multi-billion rand Fubar which compare very poorly with the eNCA “Zero Propaganda” product which has not cost the taxpayer a cent.

But let us not forget, in addition to Motsoeneng and its malfunctioning board, the third element in the SABC’s three-ring circus and the stellar role played by distinctly unamusing ANC clowns like the unspeakable Dina Pule and Faith Muthambi.

Yunus Carrim was appointed to replace Pule but he did not last long because the Snouting Faction felt that he displayed a disturbing tendency to play with a straight bat.

No, what the ANC felt was needed to augment its Tsunami of Sleaze was somebody made of the right stuff, somebody like Des ‘Weekend Warrior’ van Rooyen or Shaun Abrahams.

And so we got Faith Muthambi.

Cartoon courtesy of Twitter @brandanrey
Cartoon courtesy of Twitter @brandanrey

I had never heard of her before she was appointed as Communications Minister and so I did a Google search.

I discovered that she had been profoundly incompetent and hugely controversial as a deployed cadre in the Makhado Local ­Municipality in Limpopo.

City Press provided a brief backgrounder on the professional career of the new broadcast minister prior to her being appointed as the political head of the ANC’s propaganda ministry.

Muthambi has an academic background in law and public management and lists reading as a hobby. She obtained her BProc degree from the University of Venda.

Her background information on the ANC’s website shows that she has been active in the party mainly in Limpopo’s Vhembe region.

The highest political position she has attained is that of serving in the provincial leadership of the ANC Women’s League.

Very little is known about Muthambi before she went to Parliament in 2009 except that she had a torrid time as ­municipal manager of the Makhado Local ­Municipality in Limpopo

A far more comprehensive backgrounder is available on the My Broadband website.

We are indebted, however, to the Zoutpansberger weekly newspaper, based in Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt) for a chronology of stories which reveal early signs of Muthambi’s disturbing animosity towards the media.

The chronology of stories published by the Zoutpansberger on Faith Muthambi during her period in municipal governance in the regions provides a useful guide to her political career before she was appointed to parliament and, with the newspaper’s permission, I provide the headline, intro paragraphs and a website link to the relevant series of articles. What is most disturbing is her failed attempt to sue the newspaper for defamation. Even the most cursory reading of the articles reveals them to be an absolutely straight-forward record of her very contentious, and very expensive – for the taxpayer – reign as manager of the Makhado municipality. As is absolutely normal ANC municipal governance practice, she was given an annual bonus for a year in which she had been suspended on full pay for five months after local trades union and civic organisations had accused her of alleged nepotism, tender abuse and non-existent service delivery!

Makhado municipal manager says she will contest suspension in High Court

The Makhado municipal manager, Ms Faith Muthambi, has been suspended indefinitely with full pay. Although Council remains tight-lipped over the exact reasons for her suspension, all indications are that it concerns recent allegations against her of irregularities with regard to municipal tenders. – 4 July 2008

SA Communications Minister Faith Muthambi: defending cabinet ministers with business interests
SA Communications Minister Faith Muthambi

Hi Faith! Bye Faith?

By the time suspended Makhado municipal manager Ms Faith Muthambi walked back into office last Thursday, plans were already on the table to have her re-suspended.

Muthambi resumed her duties as municipal manager on September 18, following a ruling by the Labour Court three days prior that her suspension was unlawful. – 26 September 2008

Performance bonus by default for (absent) municipal manager

Makhado municipal manager Ms Faith Muthambi is again in line for her annual performance bonus.

Looking back at the municipality’s track record over the past year, many readers might ask themselves how it’s even possible for Council to consider paying their administrative head a performance bonus. This question is especially relevant when taking into account that, during the same year, the Soutpansberg Ratepayer’s Association officially declared a dispute against the municipality with regard to poor service delivery. Add to this the fact that Muthambi was on suspension for a total of five months during this time, and the idea of a performance bonus becomes even more inconceivable. Muthambi’s suspension by Council, following allegations of mismanagement and maladministration, was lifted in September this year when the Labour Court ruled that her suspension was unlawful. – 7 November 2008

Municipal Manager sues newspaper for R150 000

The municipal manager of the Makhado Municipality is claiming R150 000 in damages from the Zoutpansberger and its sister paper, the Limpopo Mirror, after they reported on allegations of corruption and nepotism earlier this year. She also claims R200 000 from the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) for defamation of character.

Papers were last week served on the newspapers by the officer of the high court on instruction of Ms Faith Muthambi, municipal manager of the Makhado Municipality. The first respondent in this case is the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), with Zoutnet CC, owners of the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror, being the second respondent. – 14 November 2008

Faith is a new member of parliament

Controversial Makhado municipal manager Ms Faith Muthambi is moving up in the political world with the news that she was inaugurated as a Member of Parliament on Wednesday.

Muthambi was the first female municipal manager to be appointed at the Makhado Municipality, but has over the past few years continuously been shrouded in controversy. Her shaky relationship with the former Makhado mayor, Cllr Glory Mashaba, as well as the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), contributed to the controversy. SAMWU accused her of nepotism and corruption on several occasions, which led to her being suspended last year for a total period of five months, with her sitting at home with full pay. – 8 May 2009

CCMA-judgement just rumours, says Mayor

The Makhado Municipality is yet again locked in controversy, following the news that they have to cough up R450 000 of taxpayers’ money to pay former municipal manager Ms Faith Muthambi in compensation. Makhado mayor Cllr Mavhungu Luruli said this week, however, that this is a mere rumour.

According to a municipal source, an award for constructive dismissal was granted in favour of Muthambi by the CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration), against the municipality, on July 14. This was after the municipality allegedly defaulted by not pitching up for the CCMA hearing on the said date. Following their failure to attend the hearing, the CCMA ordered the municipality to pay Muthambi the R450 000 no later than August 28. This the municipality allegedly also did not do. – 9 November 2009

Defamation case against newspapers suffers setback

The defamation case of a former municipal manager of the Makhado Municipality, Ms Faith Muthambi, suffered a setback last week when the case was struck off the High Court roll and she was ordered to pay costs to the second defendant, Zoutnet Publishers.

Ms Faith Muthambi, who is currently a Member of Parliament, filed papers in the Gauteng North High Court at the end of 2008, claiming that the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the two newspapers of Zoutnet, the Limpopo Mirror and the Zoutpansberger, had damaged her good reputation. – 24 September 2010

It is difficult to tell from these accounts whether Ms Muthambi was in any way culpable in the enmity which characterised her career in municipal governance, whether she was a further facet and manifestation of the extraordinary chaos and decay which is part of the ANC’s 22 years of democracy “good story to tell” or whether she was just another victim of the increasingly lethal nature of South African politics under the ANC.

Cartoon courtesy of Twitter @brandanrey
Cartoon courtesy of Twitter @brandanrey

I was told by the staff of the Zoutpansberger that Muthambi had only paid a small portion of their court costs which were awarded to the newspaper after the court threw out her risible defamation suit and that she had then reneged on paying the remainder.

She can refute that if she is able to.

The newspaper approached the local sheriff but he simply said he was unable to locate her … and they decided to put it down to experience and to move on – hugely relieved that she was no longer part of their milieu.

That troubles me, though.

She took the newspaper to court on frivolous grounds claiming that its factual articles had damaged her reputation and social standing. In defending the action the newspaper incurred substantial costs. The court decreed that she must compensate the newspaper company in this regard.

If she has not repaid the money in full, does that not constitute contempt of court and what does it say about the ethical probity of an ANC member of parliament whose tenure as Communications Minister has been a constant embarrassment?

What is relevant here is that she earns, by the standard of most people, a substantial income and she has had six years in which to pay the sum of money that the court ordered her to pay. I am sure that, had she approached Zoutnet and asked for a period of grace in which to pay the money, they would have been happy to agree.

It comes as no surprise to find that she was chosen as a member of the ANC’s ad hoc committee which endorsed Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s findings that President Jacob Zuma was not liable to pay for the tax-payer funded upgrades his home.

#PayBackTheMoney does not seem to feature on her radar.

  • Ed Herbst is a retired veteran journalist who writes in his own capacity.
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