{"id":124967,"date":"2016-05-27T12:56:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T10:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=124967"},"modified":"2016-05-27T14:20:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T12:20:13","slug":"watch-thank-you-sabc-song-praising-motsoeneng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/124967\/watch-thank-you-sabc-song-praising-motsoeneng\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Awkward &#8220;Thank you SABC&#8221; song praising Motsoeneng"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The SABC has broadcast a song, patting itself on the back and praising COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng for his policy to play 90% local music across the group&#8217;s radio stations.<\/p>\n<p>The song was broadcast by the SABC effectively thanking itself and COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng for its own\u00a0policy to put 90% local music on all its radio stations.<\/p>\n<p>While the policy is temporary, for now, the controversial SABC head said that his vision is to make it a permanent order, with TV to follow a similar path soon.<\/p>\n<p>The song was performed by the SABC&#8217;s in-house choir, as well as\u00a0other\u00a0local artists &#8220;giving thanks, to the 90% local music quota on its radio stations,&#8221; the broadcaster said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LmIFh49ADE8\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The SABC&#8217;s choir has been a massive point of contention in Parliament, with reports that millions of rands are being spent to fund the group, while the broadcaster faces pressing financial issues.<\/p>\n<p>The SABC has spent R7.5 million on its in-house choir over the last two years, according to a parliamentary reply\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.da.org.za\/2016\/05\/sabc-spends-millions-on-hlaudi-praise-singers\/\" target=\"_blank\">received by the DA<\/a>, <\/strong>with plans to spend\u00a0R3.78 million more\u00a0during\u00a0the 2016\/17 financial year<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In addition to praising itself for its own policies, the choir\u00a0has been known to sing songs of praise for SABC Chief Operations Officer (COO), Hlaudi Motsoeneng, in staff meetings, with the lyrics \u201cHlaudi Motsoeneng reya o leboha\u201d (\u201cHlaudi Motsoeneng we thank you\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Notably,\u00a0the public broadcaster faced a loss of R501 million in the 2015 financial year, leading opposition party the Democratic Alliance to call for the choir&#8217;s immediate disbandment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes absolutely no sense for the SABC to have an in-house choir, particularly if it exists to inflate Mr Motsoeneng\u2019s ego. There are plenty of talented choirs in South Africa that can be commissioned by the SABC should the need arise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact is that the SABC cannot afford unnecessary extravagances such as its own choir,&#8221; the party said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on the SABC<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"SABC to censor \u201cviolent\u201d protests in South Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/124923\/sabc-to-censor-violent-protests-in-south-africa\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">SABC to censor \u201cviolent\u201d protests in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to High Court dismisses SABC appeal to keep Motsoeneng as COO\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/124585\/high-court-dismisses-sabc-appeal-to-keep-motsoeneng-as-coo\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">High Court dismisses SABC appeal to keep Motsoeneng as COO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to SABC cancels show after host threatens to discuss state capture\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/117516\/sabc-cancels-show-after-host-threatens-to-discuss-state-capture\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">SABC cancels show after host threatens to discuss state capture<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to SABC COO at odds with freedom of speech\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/61959\/sabc-coo-journalist-licence-proposal-condemned\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">SABC COO at odds with freedom of speech<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SABC has broadcast a song, patting itself on the back and praising COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng for his policy to play 90% local music across the group&#8217;s radio stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":124969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,8810],"class_list":["post-124967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124967"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124991,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124967\/revisions\/124991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}