It must be fun to wield complete, unadulterated control over something like the SABC.

Of course that would be Mandoza funeral ruiner Hlaudi Motsoeneng – if that seems like an odd title to bestow upon the man then you should see his antics from Friday (HERE) before we carry on.

We also touched on the ongoing suspension / redeployment saga in that story, where the SABC look set to once again ignore the findings of both the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) and the Public Prosecutor and instate Hlaudi as acting Chief Operations Officer (COO).

A little summary of that from News24:

A letter confirming his redeployment to a senior position as group executive for corporate affairs had already been sent to Motsoeneng…

According to four well-placed and independent sources at the SABC, Motsoeneng will then be asked to act in the vacant position of COO – putting him right back where the courts said he should not be…

The intention to allow Motsoeneng to act in his former position flies in the face of the SCA decision and is despite the presidency releasing a statement this week that it noted and respected the SCA ruling.

That’s obviously disheartening, but let’s talk about this massive bonus that just lined his pockets:

Impeccable sources have independently confirmed that a sum of R11.4 million was this week paid to Motsoeneng in two payments of R5.7 million as commission or a bonus for his handling of the controversial R500 million SABC deal with MultiChoice to create SABC channels on DStv. “And that’s not an accurate amount,” said a source. “What he was paid was R11.4 million after tax, not before tax.”

Highly placed sources also revealed that this was not Motsoeneng’s entire commission package for the MultiChoice deal – which they said would total R33 million over three years…

A member of the board insisted that “the full board had never approved” a bonus for Motsoeneng for the Multichoice deal…

“If they paid him that, then it is illegal,” said one of the board members. “It goes against the SABC’s own policy.”

Of course the SABC have denied making this payment (reported on eNCA), but is it really that hard to imagine Hlaudi landing that cash without the appropriate approval?

If you’re wondering how one man has so much power let’s head over at the Mail & Guardian, who spoke to a former SABC board member:

“Hlaudi has stripped that organisation of any talent and that guy who is a [chief executive] or [chief financial officer] is totally clueless. That place cannot operate without Hlaudi – he’s made sure of that.

“They can’t simply get rid of him because everyone who is there is so used to being dictated to: ‘Wena turn left, wena turn right.’ Even the colour of the pens they buy is probably dictated by Hlaudi.”

A R33 million bonus and complete power due to working with clueless staff – living the dream, Hlaudi.

But wait, there’s more:

A source said that it was fairly common knowledge within the SABC that Motsoeneng had also been promised a huge “bonus” for his work in allegedly winning back the right to broadcast Bafana Bafana matches on the public broadcaster.

An award named in his honour? Naturally:

Explaining how he managed to implement his controversial 90% local content quota across the SABC’s broadcast platforms, Motsoeneng said he had put the idea to the SABC board but had lost the vote.

“However, I showed them that I might not have a matric but I am very clever. In the end it’s me who has to make a final decision and I did exactly that,” Motsoeneng was quoted as saying…

For his efforts he was given a lifetime achievement award by the South African Traditional Music Awards, which also named an award after him “for life”.

The mind absolutely boggles at the handling of this whole mess, and it just seems so outlandish that one man can wield such control at an organisation like the SABC.

Then again, you only need to look at JZ to know that some South Africans are prepared to close ranks around rotten apples – as long as there’s something in there for them, too.

[sources:news24&mg&enca]