SABC board's chair 'must go'

PARLIAMENT has recommended that SABC board chairwoman Ellen Tshabalala be suspended while steps are taken to remove her from her post.

The communications portfolio committee yesterday found Tshabalala guilty of two counts of misconduct for misrepresenting her qualifications and for lying under oath when she indicated that the documents were lost in a burglary at her home.

Only President Jacob Zuma can remove Tshabalala from her post after the matter has gone through the National Assembly, which will only happen when parliament reconvenes in February. In the meantime, the committee will approach speaker Baleka Mbete to request that Tshabalala be suspended.

All members agreed that Tshabalala should go, after hearing evidence from Unisa. She will have 14 days to comment on the findings before they go before the house.

Tshabalala registered for a BCom degree at Unisa on two separate occasions but did not complete her studies, the portfolio committee heard.

She had also failed so badly, achieving just 13% in one of the modules for a diploma in labour relations, that she was barred from attempting to reregister for the course.

This was the testimony of Unisa legal services executive director Jan van Wyk, who said "no qualification whatsoever was awarded to Ms Tshabalala".

He presented several official university documents and letters to corroborate his testimony, which was led by parliamentary legal adviser Nthuthuzelo Vanara.

Van Wyk said Tshabalala had initially registered in 1988 for a BCom degree. She did not have the matric results to study, but on account of being over 23 had obtained an exemption certificate.

She enrolled for three courses, but later cancelled one enrolment. She did not write the second subject and failed the third.

She re-registered for the same degree in 1996, Van Wyk said. Her application to the university was cancelled as her exemption certificate had not been renewed.

Van Wyk said she registered at the School of Business Leadership in Midrand for a diploma in labour relations in 1995, while in the employ of Portnet.

She initially passed two of the six modules, failed two, and did not write two.

In January 1996, she wrote the supplementary exams for the two subjects she had not written, but scored just 13% and 35% for these.

The university then wrote to her indicating that she could not be readmitted.

The parliamentary inquiry into the SABC board chairwoman's qualifications went ahead without her yesterday after yet another attempt to stall proceedings failed.

In an affidavit read to the committee by her legal representative Michael Tillney, Tshabalala said the committee's "unfair and uncompromising" refusal to accommodate the availability of her legal team when setting down the date for the inquiry made it clear "that I will not receive a fair hearing".

She also said she had not been furnished with all evidence to be led against her, and that Van Wyk's evidence constituted hearsay as he merely pulled the information from the system.

Committee chairwoman Joyce Moloi-Morope said the committee had on numerous occasions postponed proceedings in the matter, which had dragged on since July.

Tillney left after she ordered that the inquiry go ahead.

Moloi-Morope could not quantify what the delays had cost yesterday as proceedings had not yet been finalised. - Bianca Capazorio