Chairperson of the portfolio committee on Communications, Humphrey Maxegwana, said during the interviews for the permanent board that the committee received a letter from a person asking that the five interim board members, who are all shortlisted, not be nominated for the board, due to a tender that wasn’t awarded to Mjayeli Security.

Khanyisile Kweyama said she wanted to assure the committee that the board did not interfere with any processes.

"I also felt personally harassed, because I received a lot of harassment on that matter," said Kweyama.

When Mathatha Tsedu, Kweyama’s deputy, was interviewed earlier on Friday, he said of Mjayeli, "they seem to think the due process can not give them joy".

"We’ve had to deal with calls from members of the NCOP when the select committee came to Auckland Park on an oversight visit when the issue was raised."

He said Communications Minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, has also been approached to intervene in the matter.

After News24 reported that Mjayeli Security wanted to block the appointment of the five interim board members, the company said this claim was false.

In a statement released by the company, it categorically states that the correspondence that was written to the SABC and Dlodlo had in no way sought to influence the appointment or dismissal of any board member or the preferred bidder for that matter.

Other company

The company confirmed that they were among the service providers that tendered for the contract to provide security services to the SABC. The contract was awarded to another security company. They then requested in the exercise of its fiduciary duties, and in the interest of seeking transparency and accountability from a publicly-owned institution, that the SABC provide clarity and details of how each company was scored and the variables that were considered to award the tender to the preferred bidder. 

The SABC did not respond. "When the SABC ignored our request, which we believe was well within our rights and in line with good corporate governance and generally accepted supply chain management practices, Mjayeli wrote to the custodian of the SABC, Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, seeking her intervention in this matter," said Jones Maphalaphathwa, Managing Director of Mjayeli Security.

"We are aware of our mandate of providing security services to the organisations that we work with, and we are therefore under no illusion of what we can and cannot do in so far as our relationship with our existing and prospective clients are concerned."

Maphalaphathwa said that it is telling that such a routine procedure as seeking clarity on how the bidders were scored has been willfully and malevolently misinterpreted as an attempt by Mjayeli Security to unduly influence the appointment of SABC Board members. 

Besmirching 

"This seems to be a smear campaign and if the awarding of this tender was above board and done in line with procurement practices, then there should be no reason whatsoever to not provide the information requested on how the preferred bidder was selected," he said.

All the company sought was clarity, and that their simple request for information be honoured as part of good governance practices.

"There is no need for such a smear campaign to demonize those who are simply requesting information, of which all bidders are entitled to."

He added that government institutions must be held accountable, and this was one way to do it.

“And it does not help besmirching the reputation of those who are merely exercising their constitutional rights," Maphalaphathwa said.

The interviews were concluded on Friday evening. The committee will deliberate on the final selection of twelve board members on Tuesday morning, before presenting their nominations to the National Assembly in the afternoon.

News24