Recordings of fired SABC news boss missing ahead of CCMA hearing

The full recording of the disciplinary hearing against fired SABC news boss Phathiswa Magopeni is nowhere to be found, only two months after she was hauled over the coals. 

Magopeni sought access to the full record of the hearing to mount a case in the CCMA against the public broadcaster for unfair dismissal.

The disciplinary code of the SABC stipulates that a chair of a disciplinary hearing against an employee must keep a full record of the proceedings and ensure that electronic records are available. All records of the hearing, the code says, must be in the custody of the human resources department of the public broadcaster and shall be provided to the affected employee or legal representatives upon request, says the code .

However, it has since emerged that neither the SABC nor the disciplinary hearing chair, advocate Nazeer Cassim, have the recording of the hearing which sat in December before Magopeni was shown the door last month and her post advertised days later.

The CCMA hearing is scheduled for March 7 where it remains to be seen how Magopeni will present her case without the full records of the hearing.

TimesLIVE has seen communication between the SABC and Magopeni’s legal representatives in which the latter is pleading for the evidence.

Magopeni's lawyers informed the SABC on February 9 that their client was taking them to the CCMA and, for her defence, would need recordings of the disciplinary hearing as per the disciplinary code and procedure.

A day later, the SABC replied through their legal representatives, Motsoeneng Bill Attorneys, that they did not have the recording.

In the same response, the public broadcaster’s lawyers went further, saying the recording of the hearing should be requested from Cassim.

Seven days after this, Magopeni, through Harris Nupen Molebatsi Attorneys, wrote back to the SABC lawyers pointing out that the request was provided for in terms of their own disciplinary code.

“It is clear that your client [SABC] and not the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing is required to provide our client with the recordings of her disciplinary,” wrote Magopeni’s lawyers.

Last Friday, Magopeni requested the recording from Cassim. The seasoned Sandton-based senior counsel told TimesLIVE that he did not record proceedings.                                                                                                    

 “I did not record the hearing I expected the parties to do so,” he said.

The genesis of Magopeni’s problems is the airing of an interdicted Special Assignment episode under her watch as the overall accounting officer for all news content.

However, it is also believed that she is a victim of ANC interference in the running of the SABC after the governing party’s head of elections, Fikile Mbalula, blamed her for the ANC's election misfortunes.

TimesLIVE