There is always a little bit of excitement when former news executive-turned-politician Hlaudi Motsoeneng appears before a crowd.

The presidential aspirant is ready to give oral evidence about millions of rand paid to music legends when he was the COO of the SABC.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the broadcaster are pursuing a claim against Motsoeneng and nine others in a bid to recover more than R2.5m. The tribunal, established in 2019, is designed to fast-track SIU claims to recover stolen funds identified in its investigations.

During Monday’s hearing, the SIU’s timing years after the fact came under scrutiny from counsel for several respondents.

The claim relates to a magnanimous promise Motsoeneng made that 150 legends in music should each receive R50,000. The figure later rose to 215 artists and a total of more than R10m. Nyathi defended the payments, saying the SABC’s operations committee had criteria, frameworks and guidance that informed what another lawyer called the “operationisation” of the payments.

 

 
By the time the operations committee granted the transfers, Motsoeneng had promised musicians payments on a public platform. He made the pledges in a live broadcast, at which another SABC executive and cabinet minister were present.

It has emerged Motsoeneng wants to defend his claim that he secured outside funding negotiated with MultiChoice towards the musicians’ payments. However, he also wrote in an answering affidavit that details of the source of funds were in audited statements to which he did not have access.

Modiba cast doubt on his submissions. She told Nyathi: “He has not provided any particularity on who he negotiated with, when he negotiated.”

She said Motsoeneng disputed the claim he did not source private funding from MultiChoice and she could determine the former executive wilfully misled the committee.

Nyathi’s input followed submissions from counsel for the SIU and SABC in the morning.