Another plum job for Hlaudi
CONTROVERSIAL SABC Chief Operating Officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng has taken another boss seat at the public broadcaster.
SABC insiders close to the board of directors informed Sunday World that Motsoeneng was on Friday appointed as the new group executive of corporate affairs starting in the new week.
It was not immediately clear what would happen to incumbent head of corporate affairs Bessie Thugwana, sources said.
Motsoeneng was removed from the COO position after the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his bid to appeal a ruling by the High Court in Cape Town, which found that his appointment as COO was irrational and must be set aside.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said he could not confirm nor deny claims of Motsoeneng ’ s appointment.
“For now, all the claims can remain as they are. We are waiting for the lawyers to come back to the executive board so that the final decision can be made,” said Kganyago.
He said an official announcement would be made once the board had made a decision. An insider said the board decided they could not let go of Motsoeneng after the court ’ s decision. “The board said although they respected the decision of the court to remove Hlaudi as the COO, they cannot remove him from the SABC,” she said. Motsoeneng bragged during kwaito legend Mandoza ’ s funeral on Friday that the court ’ s decision did not stress him. “Even if I get removed as the COO and given another position, I have brought a positive change to the broadcaster, ” he said. Motsoeneng rubbished claims that he was stressed. “’I m not stressed. Why should I stress? I have implemented a lot of changes that are benefiting artists in the country. I even have meetings with African presidents which I will not name about the 90% music quota because they are impressed by the SABC implementations. “’I m not boasting or anything but I don ’ t speak English to think I ’ m intelligent. I implement, now those countries want to do what I did in South Africa,” he said. Motsoeneng ’ s career started in the late 1990s when he worked as a freelance reporter for Lesedi FM. In 2005, he became the producer of current affairs programmes at the station Lesedi FM before landing the plum job of stakeholder relations at the SABC in 2011.