Hlaudi Motsoeneng owes taxi owner – report

Controversial former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng reportedly owes a North West taxi owner money.

SowetanLive reports that the taxi owner alleged that Motsoeneng owed him money for transporting African Content Movement (ACM), a party led by Motsoeneng, supporters to its conference in April.

The taxi owner, named Khuli Motsuwane, told the publication that Motsoeneng had sought his services for transport to Ladysmith, KZN, but the former SABC COO paid R10,000 only.

Motsuwane said two 22-seater vehicles were hired for the transportation of ACM members on April 27.

The taxi owner further claimed that he had assisted ACM members with delivering election posters.

The money Motsoeneng still owes the taxi owner is R96,000, Motsuwane said, which makes the original total to R106,000.

Motsuwane said that when he requested Motsoeneng to settle the outstanding amount, the leader of the ACM reportedly said the figure was too high.

Motsuwane was quoted as saying that Motsoeneng allegedly told him that should he involve lawyers then he, the taxi owner, would lose more money.

“He then said he will deposit R10,000, which he did,” Motsuwane was quoted as saying, adding that once the money was paid last week, he contacted Motsoeneng to inquire about the outstanding amount.

Motsoeneng’s response to the inquiry about the balance was reportedly that he would not entertain the taxi owner any longer, with no communication between them since then, Motsuwane said.

The publication reports that Motsoeneng said he knew about the dispute between Motsuwane and the ACM.

However, the party leader’s response was that he did not want to be involved because he did not use a taxi.

“A man of my calibre does not use a taxi. Why must I pay him because I did not use his taxi,” Motsoeneng was quoted as saying.

Party spokesperson Nicolas Thipe told the publication that the R10,000 had been paid to Motsuwane as an act of Ubuntu while the party waited for the taxi owner to forward an invoice to the ACM head office.

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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