The Communication Workers Union (CWU), an affiliated union of Cosatu, has issued a statement supporting the motion of no confidence passed by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board to one of its board members, Advocate Cawe Mahlati.
The statement reads: “Advocate Cawe Mahlati has reduced herself to being a knotty or a prodigal child in the SABC by bullying everyone on the SABC board and senior staff members. It is alleged that she has been going around full of herself or bragging about her relationship and connections with senior politicians in the African National Congress (ANC) and senior officials in the Department of Communications (DoC), saying she is untouchable and that no one can remove her as the SABC board member.
“It is also alleged that she has tried to force the SABC board and senior staff to give her and some of her friends and family members tenders that were turned away by the office of chief operations officer (COO) based on principle of conflict of interest which we applaud as the union that organises in that sector.
“CWU appreciates the role that acting COO Hlaudi Motsoaneng and GCEO Lulama Mokhobo have played in stabilising the SABC and we will not allow anyone who will destabilise our public broadcaster.
“As the CWU, we call on Portfolio Committee of Communications to suspend Advocate Cawe Mahlati and President Jacob Zuma to remove her as SABC board member as soon as possible. This will go a long way to setting a precedent that those who think they are untouchable because of their relationship with senior politicians within our movement and do as they wish, will not be tolerated by progressive trade union movement like CWU and the President of our republic.’
