Durban - The SABC’s controversial group executive of corporate affairs Hlaudi Motsoeneng claimed on Thursday that he could transform South Africa’s economic fortunes within six months. “I can turn this country [around] within six months. I can do that,” Motsoeneng told a cheering crowd of about 400 African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) supporters in Durban on Thursday evening.
Motsoeneng was the guest of honour at the ANCYL eThekwini region’s economic freedom lecture, one of a series of talks that has included controversial South African Airways (SAA) chairperson Dudu Myeni.
To whoops and applause, Motsoeneng used his time at the public broadcaster as an example of his financial and intellectual prowess, at one point calling himself “an intellectual by birth”.
“Before I was in an acting position at SABC, it was under government guarantee and had R200 million in the bank. After I was acting COO, we were sitting at R1.4 billion. After turning around the fortunes of the SABC, I turned around the lives of the people at the SABC,” he said.
Motsoeneng said the broadcaster wasn’t paying actors an “annual salary increment”. He said he approached production houses and told them that actors were not only meant to entertain, but also had to receive a living wage.
He said English speakers at the broadcaster very rarely offered solutions and instead brought problems to meetings.
“Then you become a problem yourself,” he said.
He said that former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela had taken him to task for a high salary bill, but that this did not concern him.
“I could employ young people so I was happy with that. We absorbed all of our interns,” he said.
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“At the SABC we don’t ask our young people about experience because they don’t have any. We know that we are there to give you experience and training. We don’t appoint people like Hlaudi who don’t have matric; but you can’t compare me to the current situation,” he said.
South Africa’s policies were stumbling blocks for blacks, “but at the SABC we just close our eyes and give you a job,” he said.
Problems
One of South Africa’s greatest problems was that it had tried to mimic the West, according to Motsoeneng. South Africa needed its own standards by which to measure its successes, and should not look to other countries to provide the benchmark.
“China should be looking to us for solutions,” he said.
“If we don’t have a vision and a plan they won’t come here.”
South Africans wanted everything for free, he said.
“Even the Bible says we must sweat and work hard. We need to produce people with innovation. I am not against government assisting the poor, but it shouldn’t be the norm,” he said.
Young people needed to analyse life, he said, adding that blacks were their own worst enemies because they did not want each other to succeed. “Black people can’t complain about whites when it is blacks that are in charge of transformation,” he said.
Transformation and empowerment were impossible without risk, while timing should not be a factor.
“When I said the SABC was going to go 90 percent local, people said the timing was not right. I told them we were not prophets, we would not know when the timing would be right.”
He said it was evident that someone had to get something done for the good of the public, not for the good of the broadcaster’s executive committee, which is why he enforced 90 percent local content.
“If I was the president, I would never appoint ministers to the National Executive Committee, I would appoint people who could get things done, and those people would be at branch level,” he said.
“People who you don’t think can deliver, can deliver.”
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In December 2011, Motsoeneng was appointed acting COO of the SABC.
In February 2014 the former Public Protector investigated Motsoeneng and found that he had forged his matric qualification, purged staff members who disagreed with him and increased his salary from R1.5 million to R2.4 million in a year.
In July, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi appointed him as permanent COO, but the Democratic Alliance (DA) took his appointment to court for a review in November last year. Judge Dennis Davis, sitting in the Western Cape High Court, found the appointment “irrational” and ordered an internal hearing.
The hearing absolved him a month later and put him back in charge. The DA successfully approached the Western Cape High Court again to have the disciplinary set aside. Motsoeneng challenged the order at the Supreme Court of Appeal but lost.
In September, he returned to work as an “ordinary employee of the SABC”. Shortly thereafter the SABC appointed him Head of Corporate Affairs.
His reappointment has led to a parliamentary inquiry into the SABC board which has been fraught with delays.