Parliament’s SABC ad hoc committee ‘bad for blacks’, says Motsoeneng

Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating maladministration at the SABC is an example of black people wanting to reverse the empowerment of other blacks, axed SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng said on Friday.

“These people are saying they represent ordinary black citizens of the country. They come with their own ad hoc committee and put in an ad hoc committee to investigate SABC,” he told an African National Congress Youth League eThekwini region “economic freedom” lecture on Friday night.

“Now, you are black, you want to reverse empowerment of black people. I am not afraid of these people who are making noise. And actually if you look, why did [the ad hoc committee] not call Hlaudi to come [answer questions]? From day one it was Hlaudi until the end. But they refused to call Hlaudi,” he said.

Motsoeneng is a regular speaker at events of the provincial youth league and its branches and is a crowd favourite. His address was met with whoops and cheers from the audience.

He told the crowd that Members of Parliament needed to “operate within the Constitution”. If he had killed someone he would be allowed to defend himself.

“In this case I did not kill anyone. I empowered black people. But you know why they did not call me? They did not call me because they knew that when I took that stand people of South Africa they are going to believe in me because they believe in me. And actually the majority of South Africans support what we have been doing at the SABC,” said Motsoeneng.

He had implemented policy that brought about transformation and brought about empowerment, unlike other leaders who did not realise that a policy was not delivery. “In South Africa we have so many policies but we have the wrong people implementing them,” he said.

Motsoeneng was one of the key reasons a parliamentary inquiry into the SABC board was instituted. Parliament on Tuesday adopted the committee’s report. Among other things, the report referred Communications Minister Faith Muthambi to Parliament’s ethics committee to probe her involvement in the amendment of the board’s memorandum of incorporation as well as her role in the controversial appointment of Motsoeneng as SABC COO in 2014.

The report also asked President Jacob Zuma to reconsider Muthambi’s appointment as minister. Muthambi has indicated she will take the findings on judicial review.

ALSO READ:

//

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