Durban - SABC head of corporate affairs Hlaudi Motsoeneng has been earmarked by the ANC Youth League to be the minister of land affairs so that he would - as he did at the public broadcaster - radically speed up transformation.
The league in KwaZulu-Natal said it would go all the way to lobby for the former SABC chief operating officer when the ANC holds its elective conference in December next year.
“We are going to lobby for Hlaudi to be elected into the NEC. We need a leader like you to be the minister of land affairs so that you can transform 90% of the land to black people,” said the league's secretary in KZN, Thanduxolo Sabelo.
Motsoeneng was the guest speaker at the provincial ANCYL’s “Economic Freedom in our Lifetime” lecture at the Durban City Hall, which was packed with the league’s supporters.
“We support you because you have a clear programme to uplift the black people of this country,” said Sabelo.
Motsoeneng gained popularity when he passed a policy that all public radio stations should play 90% local music, a decision he said he made in 10 minutes.
“The scope that they have given you at the SABC is too small. By the way, you are going to be under attack for the rest of your life. The imperialists are not stupid. They look for the ones that are bold and attack them,” he said.
“But what encourages us is that you never gave up and ran back to QwaQwa. You stood up against them.”
eThekwini ANCYL regional secretary Thinta Cibane told Motsoeneng he had been invited to deliver the lecture because he had already been chosen to join the ANC leadership.
“We support you because you are not afraid. We heard you talking on radio and TV saying that if they can give you six months, you can bring back all the land.
“Well, we are not going to give you six months, but we are going to give you five years as a member of the NEC. We are going to support that you are deployed to a more strategic department,” said Cibane.
Motsoeneng described himself as a person who did not run away when under attack. He also said that while other people had academic qualifications, which were “in papers”, “my qualifications are here” (he said pointing to his head).
“My education is within me. I am intellectual by birth,” he said.
“Brian Molefe, when they faced troubled he took a break. When I hear the noise, I go where the noise is. The more people make noise, the more I go there, because I ask myself why they don’t want me do to right things for the people.”
The Mercury