'Hlaudi was dangerous', Zondo commission hears
Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) CEO Lulama Mokhobo has spoken of the danger she believes former COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng posed to the public broadcaster.
Mokhobo testified at the commission of inquiry into state capture for a second time on Wednesday.
She said Motsoeneng and former SABC board chairperson Ellen Tshabalala did not agree with her stance on the multi-billion rand deal between the broadcaster and MultiChoice.
Mokhobo told the commission that she raised objections to the deal, as she believed it would be detrimental to the SABC.
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The deal, signed in 2013, gave MultiChoice access to the SABC's archives and included a SABC news channel on the pay television service provider’s DSTV platform.
"It all had to do with attempts for me to be removed because there were agendas. There were things people wanted to do which I was not doing," she said.
She told the commission she would have never recommended Motsoeneng's appointment.
"Eventually the board woke up to the fact that there was something seriously wrong with the acting COO. And that happened when he suggested to them that they were all implicated in some wrongdoing or the other. Some of them knew that this man was not okay but continued to support them. They woke up to the fact that he was very dangerous and was going to get them fired."
Mokhobo says Motsoeneng often bragged about how close he was to then-president Jacob Zuma and she would often see ministers visiting his office and discussing SABC business with him instead of her as his superior.