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The new SABC leaders need to exorcise the ghost of Motsoeneng

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Hlaudi Motsoeneng at a press briefing in August 2017. Picture: Themba Makofane:
Hlaudi Motsoeneng at a press briefing in August 2017. Picture: Themba Makofane:

Spare a thought for the new leadership of the public broadcaster. They seem to have their hearts and minds in the right place – returning the SABC to its former glory – but I found myself feeling pity for them, thinking of the mammoth task they are facing, as they presented in Parliament this week.

Watching the presentation of the new board and executive to the parliamentary committee on communication, one could hear a pin drop when they said that, like a new broom, they were determined to ensure that the SABC was nothing but a public broadcaster.

They need our overwhelming support as they clean the mess created by one man, Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

It is surely lazy and disingenuous to put the blame squarely on the door of the matricless one. The former chairpersons weren’t exactly blameless..

First, Dr Ben Ngubane proved himself to be the wrecking ball of state-owned entities. Then Ellen Tshabalala lied about her academic qualifications – she claimed to have obtained from Unisa – sort of like Motsoeneng, who not only lied about not having a matric certificate but increased his salary astronomically.

Then followed the poor prof, who allowed himself to be a used as a useful idiot in this tragicomedy, defending the indefensible. You see, not only did Professor Obed Maghuve allow himself to be used, he actually enjoyed it, knowing that the public would feel pity for him.

Motsoeneng is the common denominator. It is mind-boggling why and how they allowed the SABC to deteriorate to such a bad state.

Motsoeneng was like Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda during the brutal era of Adolf Hitler. He celebrated his declaration on a 90% local music quota without any compelling research. He had more bizarre ideas, from censorship – which included the banning of violent visuals – to the licensing of journalists, to canning shows like The Editors, to the mooting of uniforms for SABC journalists.

He did that with the support of the sole shareholder, former communication minister Faith Muthambi, who gave her blessing because, according to reports, “Baba loves him”.

Now that the ad hoc committee led by Vincent Smith has laid a foundation, the parliamentary committee under the chairmanship of Humphrey Maxegwana is being vigilant and won’t want to see the SABC on the slippery slope it was on from 2011 until 2015, when they stopped the rot. Unfortunately, it was too little too late. The Führer had inflected pain and caused more damage amounting to millions if not billions of rands.

With the image, credibility and reputation of the SABC in tatters, the new leadership has a herculean task on its hands. It’s difficult to refer to the new chief operations officer Chris Maroleng without thinking of Comical Ali of the airways. It’s undeniable that Motsoeneng’s remnants are still there and his ghost needs to be exorcised.

His coterie of supporters is still around. Some need to be rehabilitated and others, if not most, must be flushed out of the system sooner rather than later, especially in the newsroom and human resources department. They are part of the damage inflicted on the SABC staff, especially the SABC 8, under the leadership of Mr Alpha and Omega.

In order to regain the public’s trust, the new leadership should work with everyone, including organised labour as suggested by the chairperson on the portfolio committee. I would also implore the team to also seek wisdom from the previous board that laid the foundation for transforming the apartheid news machinery to a public broadcaster under the leadership of the late Zwelakhe Sisulu.

We cannot afford the SABC to be His Master’s Voice.

Sepotokele is a journalist turned communication strategist and media trainer

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