‘It’s insulting to say Hlaudi is matric-less,’ Motsoeneng tells Zondo

Former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng told the chairperson of the commission inquiry into state capture, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, that in his view, he was “very educated”.

Motsoeneng was sharing his feeling about reports stating he did not possess a matric certificate, which he said was an insult.

“In my view, I’m very educated,” Motsoeneng told Zondo.

According to him, this could be evidenced by the fact that when checking the minutes of meetings at the SABC, it would be revealed that in “70% of the resolutions of the board” or executive council of the public broadcaster, it was evident that he was “the main man influencing the decisions”.

Former chairperson of the SABC board Dr Ben Ngubane on Monday told the commission that he had requested Motsoeneng to take part in board meetings, however, neither did the former COO vote nor take part in the decision-making, but he could make inputs.

Ngubane also testified that Motsoeneng was headhunted from the SABC in the Free State to be appointed as the SABC executive manager for stakeholder management.

Zondo questioned why the vacancy for the executive manager for stakeholder management had not been advertised, because if there was confidence in Motsoeneng, then he surely would have successfully secured the job.

The chair added that a failure to advertise the position could have opened up a situation where power was abused.

In response to this, Motsoeneng told Zondo on Tuesday that even if the post had been advertised, he didn’t believe a better candidate would have been found.

“In the SABC, no one was better than me, even if they had advertised it,” Motsoeneng said.

The former SABC COO said what mattered most was knowledge, expertise, and skills, and that he managed to “beat everyone” because he had grown within the SABC and understood the public broadcaster.

He added that during his time at the SABC, he had “trained doctors” and “trained lawyers” about the organisation and that those who had been educated only had “theory”.

“It is an insult for anyone saying Hlaudi is matric-less,” Motsoeneng said.

He thanked the SABC for taking him to different universities where he gave lectures.

“We must view education differently. To have paper, chairperson, you are not educated,” Motsoeneng said, adding that he learnt every day.

Watch the proceedings live courtesy of the SABC:

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.