A bird may soar sky high for miles on end, but once in a while it will have to touch down on mother earth to refuel the energy for its phenomenal flight.
The same can be said of SABC chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, whose days are now numbered at the public broadcaster.
Motsoeneng not only has egg on his face but has had the wings of his ego trip clipped in mid-air and has fallen back to reality with a heavy thud. His tyrannical power trip in which he wanted to drag all of us back to the dark days of the apartheid regime which fiercely controlled what we could and could not hear from the SABC, could soon come to an end.
Motsoeneng decreed a few months ago that the SABC would no longer show visuals of protesters burning public infrastructure during protests against poor service delivery. He further banned coverage of opposition parties, fired eight leading journalists in the corporation who opposed his apartheid-style leadership at the SABC and enforced his ‘toe the line or ship out’ order on all senior managers and staff members at the public broadcaster.
And the surprising thing is that these orders that take us back to the dark old days of apartheid were decreed and met with a conspicuous silence from Motsoeneng’s masters on the SABC board. This then begs the questions, ‘On whose orders is Motsoeneng acting’? Who’s he answering to? Is it the SABC board or some bigger fish somewhere? Is he accountable only to his political heads and cronies in the ANC, the minister and the President only? Why is the board suddenly a toothless bulldog? Who’s bigger and more powerful – Motsoeneng, the chief executive officer or the board? Or is it a case of the tail wagging the dog?
Motsoeneng’s ability to ride roughshod over the chief executive officer and board, simply tells you of how big and wide the plot is to control the SABC, and could be coming straight from our number one citizen himself.
The fact that Motsoeneng can defy, with impunity, both his chief executive officer and board, speaks volumes of the powers that have been bestowed on him by his puppetmaster. This alone speaks volumes about the power and authority of his puppetmaster. It tells you that he’s answerable to some much bigger force than a mere chief executive officer and board of the public broadcaster.
He also defied the ruling of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa about his censorship policies at the SABC and only succumbed to a court order.
You will be foolish to the worst degree to think this man acts on his own accord and the SABC chief executive officer and board take us as fools because they, too, know where the powers of this strongman lie – outside the corridors of the SABC.
