The Democratic Alliance is to submit a PAIA (Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to request the SABC’s record of decision on COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s R912‚000 salary increase last year.
DA spokesperson Phumzile Van Damme said this comes after Communications Minister Faith Muthambi refused to make public the record of the decision for the “unjustified and above-inflation” increase in Motsoeneng’s salary.
In reply to a parliamentary question‚ Muthambi said that “records of decisions are confidential internal documents that should be kept as such”‚ Van Damme said.
“Minister Muthambi seems to have forgotten that the SABC is publicly funded by way of allocations from National Treasury as well as licence fees‚ and is therefore accountable not only to Parliament‚ but to the public as well‚ for its expenditure. The SABC’s record of decisions are therefore most certainly public documents and not ‘confidential internal documents’‚” Van Damme asserted.
She added that the public broadcaster’s annual report‚ tabled in Parliament in September last year‚ had indicated that Motsoeneng’s salary had gone up from R2.8 million to R3.7 million in the last financial year.
“The DA requested reasons for this exuberant increase during a Communications Portfolio Committee meeting held in October‚ and SABC Group CEO Frans Matlala’s response was that ‘the SABC followed a structured process and the salaries of all executives fell within the salary scales’.
“The DA believes there was no legitimate justification for the 31% increase in Motsoeneng’s salary‚ especially given that other public sector employees received an increase of only 7% over the same period.
“It is therefore in the public interest that the process in which the salary of the SABC COO was decided and then grossly inflated‚ be publicly released‚” Van Damme said.
DA to file PAIA on Motsoeneng's salary increase
DA spokesperson Phumzile Van Damme said this comes after Communications Minister Faith Muthambi refused to make public the record of the decision for the “unjustified and above-inflation” increase in Motsoeneng’s salary.
In reply to a parliamentary question‚ Muthambi said that “records of decisions are confidential internal documents that should be kept as such”‚ Van Damme said.
“Minister Muthambi seems to have forgotten that the SABC is publicly funded by way of allocations from National Treasury as well as licence fees‚ and is therefore accountable not only to Parliament‚ but to the public as well‚ for its expenditure. The SABC’s record of decisions are therefore most certainly public documents and not ‘confidential internal documents’‚” Van Damme asserted.
She added that the public broadcaster’s annual report‚ tabled in Parliament in September last year‚ had indicated that Motsoeneng’s salary had gone up from R2.8 million to R3.7 million in the last financial year.
“The DA requested reasons for this exuberant increase during a Communications Portfolio Committee meeting held in October‚ and SABC Group CEO Frans Matlala’s response was that ‘the SABC followed a structured process and the salaries of all executives fell within the salary scales’.
“The DA believes there was no legitimate justification for the 31% increase in Motsoeneng’s salary‚ especially given that other public sector employees received an increase of only 7% over the same period.
“It is therefore in the public interest that the process in which the salary of the SABC COO was decided and then grossly inflated‚ be publicly released‚” Van Damme said.
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