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“Ninety-percent local content was approved by the Board”

Hlaudi Motsoeneng
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Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board Member Dr Aaron Tshidzumba has corroborated former SABC Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s assertion that the 90% local content was approved by the board. Tshidzumba says the SABC Board and its subcommittees had numerous meetings around local content and that the goal was always to push it up to 90%.

Motsoeneng is challenging his dismissal from the SABC. He was sacked for bringing the public broadcaster into disrepute after he held a media briefing where he also attacked the SABC Board.

He claims his removal was unfair and politically motivated.  The 90% local content quota was a preoccupation of the SABC Board that both Krish Naidoo and Aaron Tshidzumba sat in.

This is according to Tshidzumba who insists it was the Board’s decision and not just subcommittees.  This is in stark contrast to both Krish Naidoo’s testimony at the hearing and in newspaper articles he wrote where he said there might have been discussions on it but that the Board never took a resolution to implement it.

Tshidzumba holds differently. “As I said we put that local content as a stand-alone item so all discussions of subcommittees are reported to the Board, so the Board chair will ask chairpersons of subcommittees if there are items of the agenda to submit, so there were 3/4 meetings where local content was part of the agenda of the Board because it was tied to editorial policy.”

Tshidzumba does say however that there was no set date for the implementation of the 90% policy and that they realised that it would not be done overnight but might even take five years.

Earlier, poet Mzwakhe Mbuli testified where he expressed his disgust that the policy has since been reversed. Mbuli said artists have been pushing the SABC to include their work.  He says it was only when Motsoeneng took over that they got their breakthrough.

He had harsh words for the SABC’s decision to reverse the policy. “ It’s disgusting, shameful, thankless society,  a nation is judged by how it treats artists. It’s unfortunate,  it’s like people spitting on the graves of Brenda Fassie, Lucky Dube,  Vuyo Mokoena. Everything in this country was about arts and when people were banned music took centre stage.”

The hearing has been adjourned until August. This week, the issue of Motsoeneng having no authority to sign the Multichoice deal, his qualifications and most importantly his press briefing which got him fired took centre stage.

However, he was unmoved saying that he exercised his right to freedom of expression and there is no reason he should not go back to the SABC.

 

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