Hlaudi Motsoeneng sets sights on Free State leadership, urges action from supporters

African Content Movement leader Hlaudi Motsoeneng. Picture: Matthews Baloyi.

African Content Movement leader Hlaudi Motsoeneng. Picture: Matthews Baloyi.

Published Feb 26, 2024

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The African Content Movement (ACM) leader Hlaudi Motsoeneng told his supporters that they are responsible for the kind of leadership the Free State province would have post the 2024 general elections.

Motsoeneng said this in Bethlehem in the Eastern Free State when he welcomed thousands of new members into his movement on Sunday.

He said it was high time Free State residents took matters into their own hands and helped shape the province they love into something they want it to be.

“If all of us go out and vote for ACM we live happily and at ease knowing that all your needs will be taken care of. I have been delivering since my time at the broadcaster, and I can deliver even today.

“I am not a man of many words, but I am (a) man of action, and many of you know that I am (a) man that delivers on my promises,” Motsoeneg said.

He told his supporters that the aim of voting was to have a say in how the next government of the province would be formed.

Speaking with him on the sidelines, Motsoeneng said he was happy at the rate at which the organisation was growing and making strides in the province.

“I am rebuilding the party slowly, region by region, ward by ward, at our own pace. What I like generally is that people are receiving us well, this says to me that people are hungry for new set of leadership that will take service delivery seriously.

“Our people don’t want to hear about manifestos and policy that doesn’t take them anywhere, they want jobs they want water, electricity and many other things that would empower themselves in becoming better communities.”

Motsoeneng said the Free State has always been the party’s stronghold, particularly his hometown of Phuthaditjhaba.

Phuthaditjhaba falls under Thabo Mofutsanyane Region, one of the biggest regions in the province.

Motsoeneng’s party received people’s vote of confidence when it garnered two seats at the Maluti-a-Phofung municipal local council in the 2019 local elections.

The party currently heading up a position of municipal public accounts committee which they defeated the DA on the ballot with a tally of 33 votes against five to claim the position previously held by the EFF.

Thapelo Maloisane, from Phuthaditjhaba, said he is one of the people that voted ACM as majority of political parties who oversaw the municipality previously have proven to only take care of their family members.

“We gave the ANC a chance and Dikwankwetla and Map 16, but our situation was still not changing. With ntate Motsoeneng, we are hoping that we will see changes as he has done at the SABC. Nobody is perfect, so as he but we have seen his work with the 90% policy he implemented at the SABC,” said Maloisane.

Just like KwaZulu-Natal, Maluti A Phofung and Thabo Mofutsanyane, as a whole, would be highly contested as it has the biggest chunk of the voters in the province.

The Star

sipho.jack@inl.co.za