Wednesday, February 3, 2016

SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng: 'I'm back from exile with a bang'; says public broadcaster's executives are 'too black'; 'do not reflect the rainbow nation'.


SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng says the South African public broadcaster's executives are "too black" and that the top management at the SABC "do not reflect the rainbow nation that we are as a country".

Hlaudi Motsoeneng who spoke at a press conference to officially announce the latest round of schedule changes to the broadcaster's SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 channels, told the media that he is "back from exile with a bang".

The SABC's embattled second-in-charge executive reiterated what he said in 2015, that the SABC, according to him, needs to be more diverse.

In May last year Hlaudi Motsoeneng said that the SABC "needs more whites" - specifically at executive level - and that he doesn't want to see an SABC "that is too black".

"I have engaged colleagues saying we also need to employ white people. And I want to be specific: white people at exco level. I don't want to see an SABC that is too black".

"White or black, or if there are green people, after 20 years [of transformation] you can't talk about transformation, that is my belief," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng

On Tuesday at the SABC's Auckland Park headquarters he said that "management within the corporation should reflect diversity". Hlaudi Motsoeneng feels that SABC executives are "too black and do not reflect the rainbow nation that we are as a country".

He said his mandate is to make sure that the SABC becomes more reflective of South Africa as a rainbow nation. 

While one court case to force the SABC to suspend and start disciplinary proceedings against Hlaudi Motsoeneng was dropped given that a disciplinary hearing did take place, another court case is set to continue this year.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng applied for leave to appeal another judgment handed down by the Western Cape High Court late in 2015 that set aside his irregular appointment as COO last year. This legal battle is set to continue.