High court orders Hlaudi Motsoeneng to pay back R11.5 million to SABC

The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC’s) former chief operations officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng has been ordered by the High Court in Johannesburg to pay back the public broadcaster more than R10 million.

This was confirmed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on Friday morning.

Motsoeneng is required to repay R11.5 million to the SABC within seven days plus 15.5% interest dating back to September 2016.

The SABC had paid this amount to Motsoeneng as a success fee and the move has since been declared unlawful and invalid by the high court.

“In the event Mr Motsoeneng fails to pay within seven days, the SABC Pension Fund is ordered to pay the aforementioned amount to the SABC or all the pension proceeds where the pension proceeds do not amount to R11,508,549.12,” the SIU said in a statement.

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The SIU, together with the SABC, had approached the high court to review and set aside a decision by the SABC’s former board to pay Motsoeneng a success fee and recover financial losses suffered by the broadcaster.

The high court has also ordered Motsoeneng to pay the costs of application and two counsels.

Earlier this year, Motsoeneng was ordered to repay over R850,000 in legal fees following an investigation, which found that several irregularities took place, including the unlawful use of the broadcaster’s purse to fund the former COO’s legal battles.