Controversial former chief operations officer at the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng has received the worst, and yet perhaps most deserving gift ahead of the holiday season.
On Friday morning, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) revealed that an R11.5 million “success fee” paid to Motsoeneng during his time at the public broadcaster had been declared unlawful and invalid by the High Court in Johannesburg.
The fee was part of a total of R30 million paid to Motsoeneng for negotiating a R500 million deal with MultiChoice. That deal effectively gave MultiChoice access to the SABC’s entire archive.
The R11.5 million paid by SABC to its former COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng as a success fee, has been declared unlawful and invalid by the High Court. Motsoeneng is ordered to repay the money within 7 days plus 15.5% interest, dating back to September 2016. 1/4 pic.twitter.com/Uc8CGDICCl
— Special Investigating Unit (SIU) (@RSASIU) December 17, 2021
“I can find no reason why Motsoeneng should not be ordered to repay the money paid to him by the SABC. This Court must send out a strong message that unlawful conduct does not pay and that public officials will not benefit from their own malfeasance at the expense of the public purse,” the High Court wrote.
This now means that Motsoeneng has seven days to repay R11.5 million with interest at 15.5 percent. The interest will be accrued from September 2016. In the event that Motsoeneng doesn’t pay, the SABC Pension Fund is ordered to pay the amount or “all the pension proceeds where the pension proceeds do not amount to R11,508,549.12”.
The SABC has welcomed the judgment according to a report by Jacaranda FM.
“This judgment bears testimony to the SABC’s commitment to addressing corporate governance failures of the past, whilst ensuring monies due to the Corporation are recovered. We are confident that this judgment demonstrates progress in the SABC’s turnaround journey,” said chief executive officer at the SABC, Madoda Mxakwe.
Not the best gift for Motsoeneng, but likely good news for everybody but him.
