Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)’s COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng has lost an application for leave to appeal against a court’s order to repay US$673,888 he unlawfully obtained from the country’s national broadcaster, SABC.

His appeal against the High Court has been dismissed, on grounds that it was invalid and unlawful.

This comes after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the national broadcaster approached the courts to recover money that Motsoeneng had benefitted from during his time at the SABC.

The High Court in Johannesburg had ruled that the former broadcasting chief should repay the total of his “success fee”, awarded to him by the former board of the SABC, with interest calculated at a rate of 15.5% per annum from September 13, 2016.

“In December 2021, the court declared that the 19 August 2016 decision by the then SABC Board to pay Motsoeneng a success fee amounting to over R11.5 million for clinching a Multi Choice deal was unlawful and invalid. The Multi Choice deal gave the pay television service provider access to the SABC’s archives,” said SIU Spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago.

“The SIU together with the SABC approached the High Court to review and set aside a decision by the former SABC Board to pay Motsoeneng a success fee and recover financial losses suffered by the SABC. The court action was informed by the SIU investigation in the affairs of the SABC, which revealed that the SABC irregularly paid monies to individuals and entered into contracts to the detriment of the public broadcaster.”