It’s very tempting to dance a jig over the humiliation of the SABC’s chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who was rapped on the knuckles in the Constitutional Court and the Labour Court, and who has had to reinstate at least seven of the eight journalists fired for rejecting his ban on broadcasting violent public protests and destruction of property.
It’s tempting to see in these defeats a severe blow to Motsoeneng’s dictatorial powers and his propagandistic programme, and to rejoice that at last the Comical Ali of the Jacob Zuma presidency has had his comeuppance.
It’s tempting … but don’t throw any parties to celebrate the End of Hlaudi yet. If we are concerned about the future of the public broadcaster, as so many have recently claimed to be, we should be trying to look a little further into the future – to when the local government polls are over and when Motsoeneng, who is unusually quiet at the moment, starts to shout again.
It seems clear that Motsoeneng has only temporarily stepped out of the firing line, probably because he has been told to dial it back a bit until the elections are over.
Some in the ANC certainly believed that Motsoeneng was harming the party’s prospects at the polls, and some even said so. The fact that the controversy to do with Motsoeneng didn’t die down, that he in fact made it worse, was surely a determinant.
The belief that he was harming the ANC’s own brand (just as some think Zuma was, and still is) must have finally made its way from the ANC leaders who actually keep an eye on things, out there in the public space, up to the ears of the presidency.
Yet the minute the polls are over, Motsoeneng could well be back and in the public’s face. It’s likely that his job as chief propagandist is so tied to Zuma’s sponsorship that Motsoeneng will be able to hang on until Zuma finally goes.
So we should pay attention to the judgment delivered in the Labour Court this week, because it demolishes some of the defences set up by the Motsoeneng regime to protect itself from any accountability.
The judgment lashed the SABC for its “reckless disregard” in dismissing the journalists while fighting a Constitutional Court battle, and acceded to the plaintiffs’ request that the line managers who signed their dismissal orders be named and held personally accountable. This demand, as we reported in the Mail & Guardian last week, is significant.
In future, such managers may be more hesitant to do Motsoeneng’s irrational and illegal bidding, and a time must surely come when the chief himself is threatened with having to pay up for pursuing legal cases he has little chance of winning but wants to stall for as long as possible. He’s become a specialist at that. Here, however, is the thin end of a legal wedge that could widen the cracks in his armour.