by Thinus Ferreira
The South African public broadcaster wants Hlaudi Motsoeneng to pay back tens of millions of rand and is busy trying to claw back a whopping R24 million from its famously matricless former chief operating officer (COO).
The SABC wants Hlaudi Motsoeneng to pay back R10.7 million in damages, to pay back a further R11 million he was paid as a so-called "bonus" for the SABC's controversial contract with MultiChoice to create the SABC Encore and SABC News (DStv 404) channels for DStv, and to pay another R850 000 in legal fees, together with another R112 000 in late payment interest.
The Sunday Times on Sunday reported that the SABC, working with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), wants Hlaudi Motsoeneng to pay R10.7 million in damages due to irregular appointments that were made at the South African public broadcaster during his tenure, as well as bonuses that were paid to staff.
Then there is also another R50 000 each that Hlaudi Motsoeneng paid out to 53 so-called music "legends" when he made it rain SABC-money in 2016 for their supposed role in the "liberation struggle". The payments were declared to be irregular.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng could lose his pension payout and also his various homes, with a process that is underway to determine what properties he has and their combined value.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng insists that the SABC owes him money - a further R22 million as part of his "bonus" for the controversial contract in which the SABC signed its archive over to MultiChoice and decided to switch its support to MultiChoice's position for South Africa's digital terrestrial television (DTT) set-top boxes.
The SABC previously said it wants the STBs to have access control and an encryption system but suddenly switched to MultiChoice's position that influenced government policy and ended with the SABC's decoders being encryption-free.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng claims that the R850 000 in legal fees were paid when he was an employee of the SABC and was covered by the SABC's legal insurance.
