Black South Africans don’t need experience: Motsoeneng
Group executive of corporate affairs at the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng says that black South Africans do not need experience – all in the name of transformation.
In 2014, former Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela found in a report that Motsoeneng lied about his qualifications when he applied for the post of COO of the SABC.
Motsoeneng however, continued to work at the SABC in the position as acting COO, despite calls for him to be axed.
And only last month, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed Motsoeneng’s application for leave to appeal a High Court in Cape Town ruling, which set aside his permanent appointment as COO.
The board at the SABC then moved to appoint Motsoeneng to another senior post, despite calls from the ANC to ‘rescind’ its decision.
Motsoeneng went even further by saying he would reapply to be COO of the public broadcaster when the opportunity arises – and in the meantime he will serve in his previous role as group executive of corporate affairs.
“It is a given that I will apply. And I am qualified,” he said.
Speaking at a New Age Business Briefing on Thursday, Motsoeneng said: “If you want to run a business, and we as South Africans are saying we want to empower people, you can’t ask people about experience, where have you been working and so on, it is our duty to make sure that we empower black people.
“We don’t ask experience, whether they have been doing business.”
Motsoeneng said that he had started from nowhere to his current position within the national broadcaster.
He said that many foreign companies came to South Africa not to invest in the country, but to make money and then leave again.
“If I was in charge, what I would do, I will say come for 20 years, open factories in South Africa, make sure there are shareholders – black people – and when you leave, our own people are empowered, they can produce those tools of broadcasting to do business in South Africa.
“At the SABC we don’t negotiate transformation, we implement transformation, and we are not apologetic about it,” Motsoeneng said.
Motsoeneng said that he had been lobbied several times by business and politicians to appoint a certain executive. “I use my own conscious (sic), and I appoint the right people…If I am lobbied, I have a serious problem, I take another direction,” he said.
He said it is about integrity. “You should appoint people who you believe should deliver.”
“Some of us are not afraid to call the shots,” Motsoeneng said. He said the country can’t still be talking about transformation after 20 years. “We as South Africans have been denying our own people.”
He said that the constitution does not favour black South Africans in the way it has been written. He suggested that the policies need to be re-written to benefit black people.
Motsoeneng questioned if the reported R411 million loss by the SABC was even a loss at all ‘when you put money on black people’.
“We are saying that if it is a loss, it is a good loss, because we are empowering our own black people.”
“When is comes to black people, they approach us, we have money in the bank, and actually when money is in the bank, it is there to be used and empower people,” Motsoeneng said.
More on Hlaudi Motsoeneng
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I will reapply to be COO of the SABC – I am qualified: Motsoeneng
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