By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Broadcasting Coporation (SABC) has fired its group executive of news and current affairs, Phathiswa Magopeni.
SABC group chief executive officer Madoda Mxakwe wrote to Magopeni informing her that she had been fired on Friday.
“You are kindly requested to hand in all SABC property in your possession to the office of the Group Executive: Human Resources by 12pm on January 31,” read a letter sent by SABC group CEO Madoda Mxakwe to Magopeni.
Magopeni’s dismissal follows a disciplinary hearing which last month found her guilty of misconduct for failing to prevent the broadcast, airing and publication of an interdicted Special Assignment episode.
Disciplinary hearing chair Nazeer Cassim recommended that she be given a warning.
In a letter to Magopeni on Friday, Mxakwe said she was afforded, in line with the rule of natural justice, an opportunity to submit mitigating factors for the SABC’s consideration.
“After several requests for extensions, on January 27, instead of taking up the opportunity to submit your mitigating factors and distance yourself from the remarks in, amongst other things, the heads of argument submitted on your behalf, you elected not to submit your mitigating factors. You have thus waived your right to do so,” Mxakwe said.
Mxakwe said that in the absence of her mitigating factors, the SABC found that there was a breakdown in the trust relationship.
In a letter addressed to the SABC board, dated 29 November 2021, Magopeni claimed that the Special Assignment issue was being used to “hound” her out of the public broadcaster even though she was not responsible for the airing of the programme.
She accused Mxakwe and SABC board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini of allegedly putting pressure on her to approve an unscheduled interview with ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa in the lead-up to last month’s local government elections.
Magopeni also claimed the Special Assignment error, her refusal to agree to the Ramaphosa interview, and a subsequent complaint from the ANC about the SABC’s election coverage, were being used to get rid of her.
She has been afforded the right to approach the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration or the Labour Court to appeal.
Magopeni was appointed Group Executive for News and Current Affairs at the SABC in 2018 after an exhaustive search for the right candidate. She came to the SABC from eTV, where she was a senior news executive. In three years, Magopeni and her team restored trust and credibility in SABC News after the era of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who ran the broadcaster into the ground.
In 2020, the Broadcast Research Council said that SABC TV had a viewership of 30- million, far and away the highest in the country. The SABC free to air news service is watched by 40% of the total available audience, while the SABC 24-hour news channel on DStv has 40% of total news viewers, up from 14.7% four years ago.