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SUSPENDED SABC boss Dali Mpofu goes to court this week to challenge his suspension by the public broadcaster’s board.

Mpofu was yesterday locked in marathon meetings with his lawyers, planning how they were going to proceed with the matter.

It’s also understood that Mpofu is to implicate Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad in court papers as one of the people behind the plot to oust him.

Pahad yesterday said Mpofu had not contacted him, and he was therefore not prepared to comment on the matter.

“It has nothing to do with me, it is an issue between them, the SABC board and Dali,” he said.

The planned action is expected to go to the Johannesburg High Court either on Wednesday or Thursday, and it will add a new chapter to the sordid saga at the continent’s biggest broadcasting house.

Mpofu, who was suspended by the SABC board barely hours after he had axed embattled news boss, Snuki Zikalala, for leaking a confidential audit report to ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa, believes his suspension was politically motivated.

Mpofu axed Zikalala for insubordination after he refused to reinstate fired Lesedi FM executive for current affairs, Hlaudi Motsoeneng. The audit report details Motsoeneng’s alleged misleading of the SABC about his educational qualifications (see separate story) when he landed a job as a junior reporter in 1996.

Another source claimed that Mpofu had told Phosa that the only reason Motsoeneng was not reinstated was because Zikalala had refused to “play ball”. This put Zikalala under pressure to account to Phosa – and he did this by showing Phosa Motsoeneng’s dismissal dossier.

Phosa, however, refuses to speak on any matter involving Motsoeneng, saying Motsoeneng was his client.

The 14-member SABC executive management committee – one of Mpofu’s key backers in the fight – said it “believes” Mpofu’s suspension was linked to Zikalala’s.

Mpofu believes his axing was a plot by the SABC board to get rid of him, and to interfere with the daily running of the broadcaster.

But well-placed sources say the failure by the SABC to secure the lucrative cricket broadcasting rights for the 2011 World Cricket Cup is “really the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

ESPN Star Sports says the SABC failed to pay a deposit of millions of rands, leading to the rights finally going to SuperSport.

This was after the public broadcaster had lost soccer, rugby, Formula 1 and tennis rights – all of which are devastating for its audience-pulling power and revenue.

Mpofu has told sources that he had signed the ESPN contract on time, but blames the loss to SuperSport on the relationship between SuperSport chief executive Imtiaz Patel and the International Cricket Council.

Patel was offered the job of ICC chief executive at about the same time as the rights were finalised.

A source said Mpofu was more concerned about appearing on television than dealing with substantial matters at the public broadcaster.

“He was more into the PR side. He was not hands-on. He was seldom in the office and had other interests. He just did not understand corporate governance issues and did not manage his relationship with the board and the chair, especially.”

Three weeks ago a memo by the SABC board chairperson Khanyi Mkhonza – leaked to the media – made several damning allegations against Dali Mpofu, including financial mismanagement, incompetence and insubordination.

Mpofu yesterday declined to comment on his next move, but confirmed he had engaged the services of lawyers to handle the matter.

City Press has also been told that relations between Mpofu and the board hit a rocky path when Mkhonza and fellow board member Ashwin Trikamjee met twice with Patel to discuss how the SABC had lost the cricket deal.

Another board member, Peter Vundla, had a separate meeting with Patel on the same issue. These meetings were confirmed by a number of sources.

Patel, however, was unavailable for comment yesterday .

Mpofu was unhappy with the decision to meet the chief executive of a rival company without informing him. A source said yesterday that he only agreed to meet the board and Patel after his demand for a Supersport board member to be included in the meeting was agreed.

On Wednesday, the day Mpofu was suspended, the SABC executive committee wrote a letter to Mkhonza and the board demanding that Mpofu’s suspension be rescinded with immediate effect.

Some of the people who signed the letter included Gabriel Mampone, the man who was subsequently appointed to act in Mpofu’s place; Phumelele Ntombela-Nzimande, the wife of SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande; and SABC spin-doctor Kaizer Kganyago.

Nothing has come of the threat by the executive team. They have, however, been getting support from SACP leader Nzimande, who has of late become one of the key backers of Mpofu in his battles with the SABC board.

It is this action by Mpofu and the executive team that angered members of the board, especially Bheki Khumalo, Gloria Serobe, Peter Vundla and Pansy Tlakula.

“Part of the problem was that he (Mpofu) mobilised the executive and some politicians against the board. They used the slogan ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.

“It is quite clear that he was campaigning against the board. If you campaign against your managers, then you must go,” another well-placed source said.

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