Media taking heat over SABC audit

Lawyers for SABC legal head Mafika Sihlali, who is fingered in an audit report over alleged financial irregularities, are threatening to sue the paper for obstruction of justice and defamation, says an SABC News report. The move is confirmed in a Business Day report, which says that while Barry Aaron, head of the law firm, did respond in the article, he claimed the Sunday Times had not kept to the agreed questions and had taken a defamatory stance against his client, who is also being implicated in cases of intimidating senior employees. A letter was received by the Sunday Times from Barry Aaron & Associates law firm. Last Friday, the Pretoria High Court interdicted the Mail & Guardian newspaper from publishing the allegations until Sihlali had been given sufficient time to respond. However, Mondli Makhanya, the Sunday Times editor, says the court order applied specifically to the Mail & Guardian. ‘From our understanding, the order against the Mail & Guardian was predicated on the fact that the judge felt that the Mail & Guardian had not given the responding parties enough time to respond… we had given them enough time to do so,’ Makhanya said. Full SABC News report Full Business Day report

The Mail & Guardian was gagged from publishing details of the report on Friday. In the early hours of the morning in the Pretoria High Court, Judge Lettie Molopa interdicted the M&G from publishing the details of a final draft of an internal report into alleged corruption, abuse of power and intimidation at the SABC. The judge, says the Mail & Guardian Online, granted an interim interdict against the M&G preventing the newspaper from printing its front-page lead. The interdict was brought by Barry Aaron & Associates on behalf of a client in a matter related to the SABC. The lawyers objected to the publication of an article related to the internal audit report, which contains a long list of damning allegations, including financial irregularity, intimidation and violation of the Public Finance Management Act and SABC internal policy. They argued their client had not seen the audit report, which the SABC had not given to him, and therefore the client did not have sufficient opportunity to respond meaningfully to the allegations as presented to him by the M&G. Full Mail & Guardian Online report

Molopa’s order was an indictment of the judiciary’s commitment to press freedom, says the Freedom of Expression Institute. It said: ‘Even if the article was in some way potentially defamatory, the public interest in highlighting reports of corruption in the public broadcaster outweighs any argument in favour of an interdict, given that a post-publication defamation action is open to Sihlali. The court failed properly to take note of the extraordinary nature of a prior restraint on media publications, which is virtually indefensible given the compelling subject matter of the censored article.’ FXI press release

The Sunday Times report gave details on the audit, which reveals how Sihlali allegedly authorised millions in lawyers’ fees to his own law firm and two others with which he has links. Other details include that Aaron’s firm was allegedly paid double for at least three jobs; that Sihlali failed to declare his business interests in 28 companies when joining the SABC on August 1 2006 and that he failed to declare his relationship with Aaron, to whom he gave work. Despite the report and recommendations that Sihlali be suspended, he is still working at the SABC. The audit report names two other law firms that received work once Sihlali took office – one his own – and highlights ‘various suspicious payments’ made to the firms, recommending they and their principals face criminal charges. Full Sunday Times report

Sihlali\'s lawyer has questioned the broadcaster\'s failure to initiate formal proceedings against his client, which would allow him to clear his name, says an SABC News report. Aaron says the SABC\'s audit team has been in possession of the draft report for at least three weeks. Aaron says most of the allegations originally made against Sihlali have been found to be without basis. Full SABC News report