He was officially removed by the SABC board from his position as acting chief operating officer (COO), but Hlaudi Motsoeneng who famously doesn't have matric is back as acting COO and once again basking in the limelight.
If it looked as if the enfant terrible Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the SABC's second highest ranking top executive was never gone, it's in a sense because he never was. Dispatched by the SABC back to the position of stakeholder relations and provinces, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, never really went back.
The SABC never officially confirmed that Hlaudi Motsoeneng actually remained acting COO. The SABC also never responded to media enquiries asking for clarification about Hlaudi Motsoeneng's position, or whether he is "back" as acting COO.
The last press release the SABC sent out, officially said that Hlaudi Motsoeneng is reverting back to his old position.
Yet, today, Easter Saturday, the SABC in a press release is for the first time again is casually referring to Hlaudi Motsoeneng officially again as the SABC's "acting COO" - no explanation that he was "reinstated" or when or why. Hlaudi Motsoeneng who loves the media limelight is often quoted in press releases and talks a press conferences, instead of the SABC's actual permament CEO, Lulama Mokhobo.
He came to prominence last year when he allowed SABC television news to film him standing in front of the burning SABC where the Isidingo sets at Henley Studios' studio 6 were going up in flames, saying "we don't know how to handle it" and "As SABC we're very shock [sic]. We're not expecting this. As you know,I mean, financially we are not sound."
The matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng's "reinstatement" as acting COO follows after the whole SABC board which terminated Hlaudi Motsoeneng's tenure as acting COO, self-destructed after in-fighting with the SABC board chairperson dr. Ben Ngubane and the minister of communications, Dina Pule.
The majority of the SABC board resigned two weeks ago over the Hlaudi Motsoeneng mess and has now been replaced with an interim SABC board.
Interestingly, after the SABC board had removed Hlaudi Motsoeneng who was supposed to be back looking after provinces for the SABC, parliament held an emergency meeting of the portfolio committee on communications about the beleaguered SABC implosion.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng, although not acting COO, was also sitting in parliament and right next to Lulama Mokhobo. It's not clear why he was still there if he wasn't the acting COO anymore.
