Motau, a former journalist, communications manager for major corporates, and now a Member of Parliament, spoke to media update’s Adam Wakefield about his career path, what the award means to him, and what he would tell his 30-year-old self.

Motau’s working career began in 1962 as a 19-year-old bookkeeper at the Pretoria city council’s offices in Atteridgeville. In 1977, he was one of the first two black journalists to join the Pretoria News as a reporter. Ten years later, after a brief stint at The Star in 1987, Motau joined Anglo American as a press officer in the same year.

Motau’s work at Anglo American also saw him working for De Beers, and he later held senior positions at Transnet, Sasol, and Mercedes Benz South Africa over the next 15 years. After leaving Mercedes Benz in 2008, Motau entered politics, and became a Member of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance in 2009, where he has been since.

Communication to Motau is listen first, speak later

Through it all, Motau has learned different lessons in each position he has worked in, the best being that communication is an attempt to get meaning and to make sense and understand.

“As such, listening attentively is critical. Not only to listen, but to listen and hear - that is, understand the other,” Motau says.

“While at high school, I realised that listening to the teacher in class meant that I could spend less time studying after school. That meant I could have more time to play.”

Listening as a journalist meant Motau was more likely to get a story correct, and, subsequently, ask the right questions. As a press officer who must respond coherently to media and others, listening first means your response will be coherent.

Having held senior management positions over the course of his career, Motau says managers manage, but they also lead people, as employees must be listened to and heard.

“Being a divisional manager and communications head meant having to deal with quite a number of smart people as subordinates. To hear them, to understand what they were about, was critical in running an effective and successful division or department.”

Looking back at his career, Motau is proud no subordinate or peer has ever complained that he did not listen to them when they came forward with a problem.

“Recently, a colleague in Parliament said he was struck by the fact that I seemed to listen to everyone who spoke in the House,” Motau says, bucking the observable norm of MPs talking past one another.

Even when Motau feels a speaker is talking rubbish, he listens, because he finds it disrespectful not to listen when someone is speaking to you.

“I truly believe that I am in Parliament today because I am a good listener and an effective communicator,” Motau says.

The PRISM Lifetime Achievement Award

At the 20th PRISM Awards, hosted on Saturday, 6 May in Johannesburg, Motau was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, an honour which was a “most humbling experience” for the former PRISA president.

“Just to be nominated for the award was reward beyond my expectation. Being the first black president of PRISA was something I took in my stride,” Motau says.

“I believe that my years in journalism and ‘graduation’ to public relations, through many years in some of the best companies in the country, was the best training ground to lead the public relations organisation in the country.”

Looking back, Motau believes the award is a well-deserved acknowledgement of his contribution to the profession, both locally and internationally, following the PRISA President’s Award in 2007 and being registered as a PRISA Fellowship in 2003.

Amidst change, certain skills and PRISA are always needed

Over the course of Motau’s career, the channels and technologies he has used to execute his skills have changed. However, the need for certain skills within the public relations and communications industry does not change.

“What will not change and should always be enhanced are sound interpersonal relations and superb writing and speaking skills,” Motau says.

“The profession is all about people and inter-relationships with those people. Unlike things, people have feelings, and a good PR professional, journalist, or parliamentarian must never forget that.”

Underpinning those inter-relationships are high-quality standards and sound professional ethics, which is why PRISA is so important to the industry. Motau describes PRISA, which turned 60 this year, as a “home for the development of quality PR professionals and inculcation of ethical behaviour among practitioners”.

“Besides, people are social beings and like to belong. A professional body fulfils this need in various positive ways. It is my strongly held view that if a PRISA did not exist in South Africa, we would have had to invent one,” Motau argues.

Just a guy from Atteridgeville

Of the many fond memories Motau has of his career, he recalls a moment that occured sometime in 1990 or 1991. At the time, he was seconded to De Beer’s Central Selling Organisation in London as a communications executive, and work had taken him to Toronto in Canada.

"One night, after a successful PR event, I walked to my hotel room in the city, through light snow and with the great lake nearby in the background. As I mused about the evening's job, my mind drifted as a thought struck,” Motau recalls.

“There I was, all by my lonesome self, in the middle of a cold night where practically no one knew me and miles and miles away from my home in Pretoria. ‘How did a guy from Atteridgeville end up here at this time of the night?’ I soliloquyed. I smiled and chuckled to myself as I realised how far public relations had taken me.”

Motau’s advice to his past self  

A final question media update posed to Motau was what advice he would give his 30-year-old self. He replies that his past self will do well to heed the following:

“It is very important to have dreams about the great future you want to have. However, wake up and do something about it, otherwise it will stay a dream. Always aim for the stars so that if you cannot make it there, you will have a soft landing on the clouds,” Motau says.

“Success begets success and failure begets failure. And remember, hard work is generally always rewarded. Furthermore, the reward of a thing well done is to have done it. Finally, perfection is not doing one great thing once in your lifetime. Perfection is getting the littles right the first time, every time."

For more information, visit www.prism-awards.co.za

The #CloverDroughRelief campaign claimed a Gold PRISM Award in 2017, taking a journalistic approach to a real problem. Read more in our article, The campaign that won Engage Joe Public Gold at the PRISMs

*Image courtesy of the Democratic Alliance, under this license. The image has been altered.