From an organizational design point of view, the role of the position of the Chief Operating Officer (COO) is to, inter alia, under-study the CEO for possible assumption of the position in the future. It is essentially an executive leadership development position. The problem is that at SABC, the COO, Mr. Motsoeneng has been in that position for over 10 years, a period during which 5 CEOs have come and gone. All these CEOs were fired. Yet Mr. Motsoeneng never assumed the role of the CEO each time it has been vacant.
This raises fundamental questions about the relevance of the COO position at SABC.
It is increasingly becoming apparent that the position of the COO at SABC is completely unnecessary and appears to have been created specifically for Mr. Motsoeneng by the government for political expedience. Mr. Motsoeneng has never confirmed nor denied public allegations that have been swirling for a long time in South Africa that he is the President’s inside man at the critical public opinion shaping SABC.
Mr. Motsoeneng has the equivalent of A-levels as qualification and the truth of the matter is that, without the requisite minimum qualifications, Mr. Motsoeneng can never be formally appointed as the CEO at SABC but perhaps he doesn’t need that title at all. He is already exercising the powers of the CEO even though he is just a COO. CEOs have come and gone, allegedly at his behest, but he remains as powerful as ever at SABC- a case of the COO being more powerful than the CEO.
The Minister of Communications, Ms. Muthambi is now alleged to be trying to have direct control over the SABC. This was the norm during the apartheid era and was done away with during the Mandela era as SABC transformed into a public broadcaster.
The SABC has been riddled with acute organizational design, financial, personnel and management troubles for a long time. In 2014, the South African Public Protector Ms. Thuli Madonsela released a report which found that Mr. Motsoeneng’s salary had risen from R1.5m (US$150,000) to R2.4m (US$240,000) in one year.
Also, according to the report, he had lied about his academic qualifications (Apparently all he has is Matric/A levels) and had purged senior staff. The public protector recommended that Mr. Motsoeneng, who was acting Chief Operating Officer at the time, be suspended, pending a disciplinary inquiry. But he remains in his position and no disciplinary action has been taken against him.
In the same year, rather than fire him, Communications Minister Ms. Faith Muthambi endorsed Mr. Motsoeneng’s appointment as the permanent Chief Operating Officer.
The official opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA) then lodged an application in the Western Cape High Court, seeking an enforcement of the Public Protector’s recommendations. The Court ordered that the SABC Chief Operating Officer be suspended, pending a disciplinary inquiry. But Mr. Motsoeneng appealed the ruling, and the case was heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal recently and ruled that he be suspended but he was instead put on leave of absence.
The opposition party then threatened to go to court to seek an order of contempt against the SABC for refusing the court orders. So he was suspended only for him to be brought back again.
This drama has now dragged on for more than two years without any solution in sight. It has already been played out in various courts including the Supreme Court of Appeal as well as the Constitutional Court without an end.
Under normal circumstances, Mr. Motsoeneng should have been suspended earlier and disciplined by the SABC Board, as directed by the Public Protector. Instead, Mr. Motsoeneng continued to rake in millions at the expense of the TV license-paying public…. To be continued
