By Staff Writer
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) announced on Monday that it laid charges of treason against former Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi.
Charges were laid at the Brixton police station in Johannesburg.
“When the court finds Faith Muthambi guilty, this should mean a sentence of life imprisonment,” Dominique Msibi, OUTA’s Portfolio Director for Special Projects, said in a statement.
In 2015, the Western Cape High Court found that Muthambi acted irrationally and unlawfully in her appointment of Hlaudi Motsoeneng as Chief Operating Officer of the SABC because of the Public Protector’s findings against him of abuses of power, fraud, and maladministration.
OUTA said Muthambi’s abuse of power led to the SABC’s current financial crisis, plunging it into billions of rands in debt.
The #GuptaLeaks emails reveal further evidence of disgraceful and illegal behaviour by Muthambi.
“Faith Muthambi knowingly and deliberately shared three confidential Cabinet memoranda, through emails with Tony Gupta, Duduzane Zuma and Sahara’s CEO Ashu Chawla. These people should never have been privy to any ministerial communication and policy discussions,” says Msibi.
She appointed Motsoeneng, who was instrumental in funding the ANN7 Breakfast Show, although ANN7 is a competitor to SABC and for which the SABC paid R43 million to Infinity Media, a company affiliated to Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas.
OUTA said a series of emails which Muthambi sent to Tony Gupta on matters of executive policy and the scope of her ministerial powers is alarming.
