Sunday, March 18, 2018

The cash-strapped SABC spent over R740 000 of SABC TV licence fee payers' money on a brand-new Audi Q5 for the controversial former SABC board chairperson, Mbulaheni Maguvhe.

The cash-strapped SABC spent over R740 000 of SABC TV licence fee payers' money on a brand-new Audi Q5 2.0 TDI for the controversial former SABC board chairperson Mbulaheni Maguvhe, while the South African public broadcaster was in serious financial trouble.

The Sunday Times revealed that the SABC forked out over R700 000 for Mbulaheni Maguvhe's new luxury German ride in July 2016.

The current SABC board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini doesn't get a car.

The controversial Mbulaheni Maguvhe doggedly refused to resign as all of the other former SABC board members resigned, and eventually left in December 2016 during a parliamentary ad hoc inquiry into the shocking state of affairs at the SABC, its board, and its rotten state of financial and management affairs.

Mbulaheni Maguvhe tried to thwart the inquiry and transparency into the SABC with an attempt at a court interdict that was dismissed and he was ordered to personally pay the court costs.

Parliament found that Mbulaheni Maguvhe and others allegedly lied during the parliamentary's inquiry into the SABC.

In a written reply to a question from the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party, the former minister of communications, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, says the SABC paid more than the standard cost of R620 000 of what a Audi Q5 sold for at the time, because of added extra's.

These included R119 000 in additional vehicle perks that were added to the price of Mbulaheni Maguvhe's new SUV, including alloy wheels costing R24 000, a sunroof of R18 000, R8 870 on a parking assistance system, R4 623 for tinted windows, xenon lights costing R11 000, atowbar for R10 000, and an electronic "luggage system" costing R5 500.

An annual SABC TV licence fee currently cost R265. It means that the full SABC TV licence fee money of 2 792 people would have been needed to buy the Audi Q5 for the SABC that is a public broadcaster and is supposed to carefully and with due diligence use money to do the best public broadcasting it can.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told The Sunday Times that the SABC board has now made a decision to "sell the car and the process is underway".