While others think introspectively, Hlaudi allows what comes to mind to hit the audience. He lets his thoughts flow, writes Madala Thepa.
Group Executive Corporate Affairs of the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, can connect with his audience with the soothing indifference of a street chap. No fancy word codes. No word play, but a virtuosic facility with the English language that is straightforwardly hilarious.
Hlaudi is the only person on the planet at this moment who can really crack you up - the first in the story of the national broadcaster to connect with his audience. Hlaudi is loved because he is not afraid to drive into oncoming traffic with his tongue. He talks bluntly and makes decisions, however unfavourable.
At the occasion of the announcement of contracts for local TV and film productions, he promised a gift card of millions of rand and a good working relationship. He had free range on the microphone. He was at home, unchained and really unloading his thoughts.
Spokesperson Kaiser Kganyago had to step in now and then to cut the overflow. But he just continued and concluded by saying journalists are free to ask the difficult questions. But the same “difficult” questions were cut off by him.
On the question of sunshine journalism, the SABC is practising, he was not relenting. It was said he wanted 70 percent to be good news and was said to be softening political stories with violent themes.
“These buildings that are being burned belong to all of us,” he said to the production companies and journalists. “We can’t give these people airtime to burn institutions that also belong to us. It does not make sense. It would seem we are encouraging this.”
In another interview, he said: “It does not matter whether it’s 90 percent or 50-50 of news. What I meant was you can’t always have bad stories in the air. We need to get good stories on air too. South Africa is not about bad stories only. There are good stories out there and good projects to report on.”
Turning his focus on the journalism as practised at the SABC, he was self-flagellating.
“We should not get stories from print media. It should be the other way round. Print media should get stories from us. Our own journalists now are following print media. We are changing that culture and we must break stories. We don’t want to rely on news agencies. We are the agency. We want good journalism. And now we have appointed new people and we want to see results.
“My belief is that journalists should not be in the office. They should be out there on the streets getting stories. Some of us in our time, we broke stories and the newspapers were following us. The papers were following the SABC. So we have the resources, the tools are there for the people to deliver.
“How do you get stories while sitting in the office with a telephone? So I celebrate journalists who go out there to get stories.”
While others think introspectively, Hlaudi allows what comes to mind to hit the audience. He doesn’t fret much about word structure. He lets his thoughts flow. It is said Communications Minister Faith Muthambi once said “he is loved by uBaba” and needed to be appointed as COO - referring to President Jacob Zuma. Everyone who is loved by uBaba has some comedic qualities bestowed on them. Julius Malema comes to mind. UBaba is also a comedic genius. Unchained by punctuation-free speeches, he can also deliver the macabre and hilarious. So you can imagine friendly banter between the two away from the practised gestures when they meet and when spokespersons or aides are not around to cut the fluff.
Hlaudi’s legacy is dependent on the two projects that the media seem to suggest as “reckless” and “unattainable” - the 90 percent South African music airplay and the opportunity given to TV and film productions that are black-owned. Opening opportunities for local artists and black production companies is his revolutionary executive action. It says this is not over-the-top vain. The stakes are African.
Hlaudi is loved by junior SABC staff and loathed by the DA and social media. The rest of us snotty-nosed twirl our toes in embarrassment when he talks and hang our heads in shame when he veers off the official script. But up there in his 27th floor office, things line up nicely. There is a different model of care. They say on the ground floor that Hlaudi is the go-to-guy, approachable, dependable and amenable - basically good people touting his humility.
“Controversial” is a media-word-construct. We have made him out to be like a Nazi memorabilia - a problem to keep around. Ordinary folk get him.
The DA wanted him out, took him and the SABC to court and ended at the Supreme Court of Appeal which held that remedial action by the public protector has legal effect and cannot be ignored by state and public institutions. His disciplinary case was said to be a farce. And according to people who know these things, he got off lightly. But here at headquarters there is a powerful factor of the majority that truly love him.
The Hlaudinistas are overpopulating. Ninety percent of airplay of South African music has brought him to the popular stage. The likes of Mzwakhe Mbuli feted him with a song to thank him for his efforts as the voice of the dispossessed. Now the TV and film productions are happy he has opened the doors for them too.
This is to say revolutions are no longer coming from the hands of esoteric minds, but from the comedic geniuses of Hlaudi’s make. It is the drop-outs who are brave to take action.
In Hlaudi’s world everyone gets a trophy.
Even when the local productions churn out mediocre television and artists cook up soppy songs, Hlaudi has given them the opportunity of a lifetime.