Hlaudi must never be allowed near any public broadcasting entity again

You cannot say former SABC chief operating office Hlaudi Motsoeneng is the shy and retiring type, nor that he is ever troubled by self-doubt.

He was again in sparkling I’m-an-asset-to-the-world mode this week as he challenged his dismissal before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). His firing was, he told the CCMA, “unfair”; that he was removed for political reasons and that SABC had been plunged into a financial crisis since he left.

He also disputed a claim by current SABC board member Krish Naidoo that the public broadcaster had lost more than R300 million in revenue because of Motsoeneng’s order that there be a quota on local content. This meant that 90% of music played had to be local.

Motsoeneng got his position because he was close to then president Jacob Zuma and because the Zuma cabal wanted to use the SABC as its propaganda mouthpiece.

And he moved a long way down that road. Apart from the music quota, he also banned coverage of unrest and service delivery protests.

Motsoeneng often came across in public as clownlike, but underneath he plotted to become South Africa’s Dr Goebbels.

He must never be allowed near any public broadcasting entity again.

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.