Motsoeneng's position at SABC has no standing - Public Protector
Cape Town - SABC executive Hlaudi Motsoeneng's position as chief executive for corporate affairs has no standing until the Public Protector's report on him is suspended or overturned on review, the Western Cape High Court heard on Tuesday.
"The Public Protector believes the appointment would be improper until the SABC's application has been finalised," the protector's lawyer, Etienne Labuschagne, submitted in the DA's application to have him removed from his new job, and any job, at the SABC.
He said former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela had found Motsoeneng a "dishonest" employee who caused "a toxic failure of corporate governance" at the public broadcaster.
The Constitutional Court ruled on March 31, in the EFF’s application about Madonsela’s report on Nkandla, that reports from the Public Protector’s office are binding.
The DA’s application was being heard by Judges Owen Rogers and Andre le Grange. A phalanx of advocates and their attorneys sat in the grand benches of the court.
Motsoeneng sat to one side, wearing a blue suit and striped tie, listening intently.
Earlier, he told News24 that he was well, and ready for the case. He and the DA's federal executive chairperson exchanged pleasantries, touching each other's shoulders like old friends.
"It's not personal," said Motsoeneng, settling in to hear the DA say he should be booted out of his job at the public broadcaster.
Promotion 'irrational'
In 2014, under Madonsela's watch, an investigation found Motsoeneng had never matriculated from Metsi Matsho High School, as he had claimed, and that he had given himself pay rises.
Motsoeneng was appointed acting SABC chief operating officer in 2011. After Madonsela’s report, titled When Governance and Ethics Fail, was released in February 2014, there were expectations in some quarters that he would be removed.
Instead, in July 2014, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi approved his appointment by the SABC board as the permanent COO.
The DA took the matter to court. In November 2015, Judge Dennis Davis found his promotion was "irrational". He said Motsoeneng's continued tenure would depend on the findings of a disciplinary inquiry against him. The SABC held one and cleared him.
The DA went back to court to ask that the disciplinary inquiry findings be set aside. The SABC indicated it would take the Public Protector's report on judicial review.
On September 19 this year, the Supreme Court of Appeal rejected Motsoeneng’s bid to appeal the Western Cape High Court’s November 2015 ruling declaring his appointment irrational and setting it aside.
Motsoeneng was again expected to lose his job, but instead was moved over to the corporate affairs job.
Supporters chant Motsoeneng's name
Anton Katz, for the DA, argued that the saga had cost the taxpayer over R28m in the more than two years it had been dragging on. He said the SABC's handling of the matter reminded him of Alice in Wonderland.
He submitted that, in addition to the SABC's strange behaviour over Motsoeneng, the whole thing was a charade. Motsoeneng was behind the appointment of the chairperson of his disciplinary hearing, and even spoke for the board in media conferences.
Supporters outside the court did not feel the same way. They swamped Motsoeneng as he left the court during the lunch break, chanting his name, and excitedly taking selfies.
Madonsela never investigated white people - Motsoeneng
Hlaudi Motsoeneng accused former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of racism when he spoke on the sidelines of his battle against a DA court bid to have him kicked out of his job.
Moving from calling the Democratic Alliance's application against him in the High Court in Cape Town "racist" and anti-transformation, he questioned why the subjects of Madonsela's investigations were always black.
"When you check even the most previous Public Protector has been targeting black people. [She] has never targeted white people," Motsoeneng told supporters who had waited in the cold for most of the day to hear him speak.
He said both black and white people were capable of being corrupt.
"But have you ever seen in that office of the Public Protector, the former Public Protector, exposing white people?" asked Motsoeneng.
The case continues.
