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City Press reports that the department that collects licence fees at the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been severely impacted after 26 staff members received notice that they had apparently been fired on Wednesday.
Several of the staff members confirmed the reports to City Press as did their union representative, Tuwani Gumani of the Media Workers Association of SA (Mwasa). Disgraced former SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng put the licence collection agents, originally outsourced from a global company called Teleresources, onto three year contracts. But seemingly the contracts did not comply with labour regulations or the SABC’s own guidelines and were for only three years with no benefits or bonuses. The 26 workers went on what Gumani described as a legal go slow, underscored by a CCMA certificate enabling industrial action. “Then suddenly, after months of go slow, we got letters saying we’ve been suspended and were informed, on 6 March, of a disciplinary hearing to be held two days later. We arrived at the hearing but there was no chairperson so it was postponed,” said one of the workers. Last week the staffers received letters that read: “You are hereby notified you are relieved from your duties. You will be dully [sic] notified of the date to attend a disciplinary inquiry…” Gumani is angry and confused and asked: “Are they dismissed? Suspended? We don’t even know.” But SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo disputed Gumani’s claims, adding that “this matter is still in progress internally.”
- Read this report by Charl Blignaut in full at City Press
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page