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SABC going after whistleblowers

Cape Town – The SABC is going after whistleblowers leaking information about the public broadcaster and says "we will come after them".

The SABC's current enfant terrible, the acting chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng, wants to find and root out the SABC staff members responsible for leaking information about the beleaguered South African public broadcaster to the press.

Motsoeneng has launched "operation clean up" to sniff out SABC staffers who are talking to the media and revealing insider information about the struggling broadcaster which has been battered with an unending stream of negative press.

Many damaging stories covered in 2012 have been about Motsoeneng himself, or he has inserted himself into, or found himself strategically at the centre of various quagmires afflicting the SABC during the past year.

'Not allowed to talk to the media'

Motsoeneng, who infamously doesn't have matric, is acting in the second highest executive position at the broadcaster and has been garnering more press attention the past year than the current CEO Lulama Mokhobo.

According to insiders Motsoeneng, has tasked the SABC's acting news boss Jimi Matthews as well as internal auditors at the SABC to find out which staff members are spilling information regarding the SABC to the media and who exactly the whistleblowers are.

The SABC's spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told Channel24 that the SABC can't and will not comment about specific meetings but can talk about general policy at the broadcaster.

"As part of media policy people are not allowed to talk to the media directly who are not authorised to do so. If anyone who works at the SABC leaks information, it is an offence," said Kganyago.

"Even the contract of employment of staff specifies this. If anyone leaks internal information, we will come after them. We have to safeguard the information of the corporation.

"We condemn the fact that people think they can spy and leak information. These are internal e-mails which are leaked. If we find who has done this, and it doesn't matter the issue, we will deal with that person," he said.

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