Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng on Wednesday, pledged his support for presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, adding that he could win the country’s presidency position should he decide to run.

Motsoeneng, who is on suspension, addressed a marathon media briefing preceded by actors and musicians taking to the platform pronouncing their support for him. The group referred to him as ‘the people’s COO’.

“I am loved by many people, I can mobilise over 20-million people. Majority of people wherever I go say I should be leading somewhere…to those who want me to be president, I say it is not a secret that I support a woman [for presidency]…I won’t stand for presidency for now, I am concentrating on the SABC and all those who need my help,” said a buoyant Motsoeneng.

He said he was still employed by the SABC, and enjoyed “going in and out of the SABC”.

“Right now I am enjoying my life, I have more time with my family…I take my children to school and also invited to speak to people from various provinces. I am not apologetic about what happened at SABC…when I was there, there was money at SABC.”

He said he was looking forward to the disciplinary hearing and would not take the Public Protector’s report on him on review.

“The remedial actions in the Public Protector report have nothing to do with me but the SABC, it is an SABC matter… I am going to tackle the hearing.”

Turning to the SABC 8, a group of journalists who complained about editorial interference at the public broadcaster, Motsoeneng said the group “have not won the war”.

The journalists sought direct access to have the court declare the SABC’s policy not to broadcast footage of violent protest action as unconstitutional and invalid.

“I am happy that the Constitutional Court dismissed their application. I told the political team in a meeting that we needed to balance news…you cannot compare President Jacob Zuma to other leaders, I said separate him, he is the leader and needs to be given more airtime to explain his decisions to the country,” Motsoeneng said.

“[then acting political editor] Sophie Mokoena even invited [veteran journalist and interim board member] Mathatha Tsedu to speak to them. I urged them to ask questions in that workshop, they did, I responded…and they clapped hands.”

He claimed MPs were not representing South Africans anymore, but themselves and their own organisations.

“Who is benefiting from their debates? If I was a politician, I would not allow 10 or 20 political parties in Parliament…for what? They need to reduced so that the money paid to them be invested in ordinary people’s lives. We need to change the Constitution of this country…we should not be creating jobs for politicians.”