Hlaudi Motsoeneng / Image via Facebook
Hlaudi Motsoeneng: Is R22 million pension benefit now at stake?
Both the SABC and SIU are reportedly not done with Hlaudi Motsoeneng and are pursuing another claim against him for over R20 million
Hlaudi Motsoeneng / Image via Facebook
There’s only a few days before the deadline for Hlaudi Motsoeneng to pay back the R11.5 million to the SABC is reached – and he stands to lose about double that amont should he fail to honour the court judgement.
On Friday, 17 December 2021, the South Gauteng High Court ordered him to pay back a whopping R11 million to the public broadcaster. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had approached the courts to have a decision by the SABC board to award Motsoeneng the funds reviewed and set aside. According to the SIU, the money had been paid to him as a success fee – but now the court has declared that the money was unlawfully given to him.
MORE TROUBLE FOR HLAUDI MOTSOENENG
According to IOL, both the SABC and SIU are not done with Hlaudi Motsoeneng just yet – both entities are pursuing another claim for more than R10.2m in wasteful and irregular expenditure incurred during his tenure in office at the public broadcaster.
But the suit will only go ahead once Motsoeneng has managed to pay back the R11.5 million to the SABC. There is so far no word on whether he intends challenging the decision or plans to pay up.
“The pension fund is to pay to the SABC an amount of R11.5m from the pension proceeds that have accumulated to the benefit of Motsoeneng, in favour of the SABC. Alternatively, it has to pay the full pension payment proceeds of Motsoeneng in the event that they do not equal R11.5m. And in the event that the second respondent (Motsoeneng) fails to pay the moneys over within seven days from date of service of this order,”
South Gauteng High Court Judge JL Khan
That’s not all that the High Court has decided – in addition, Motsoeneng has been ordered to pay 15 percent in interest every year from September 2016. The news probably comes as a shock to Motsoeneng, who himself had believed that the public broadcaster owned him a cool R16 million. According to a Sunday Times report from 2019, he claimed this was for his role in brokering a controversial content deal with pay-TV giant MultiChoice.
