Sejamothopo "Sej" Motau (born 18 July 1943) is a politician, journalist, communications and corporate affairs expert, and a former Fulbright Scholar. He was

South Africa's South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Shadow Minister of Presidency, and a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the opposition Democratic Alliance. From 2009 to 2012, he was the Shadow Minister of Energy. Motau is a former journalist with the ''

Pretoria News ''Pretoria News'' is a daily English-medium newspaper established in 1898 in South Africa's capital city Pretoria. It is distributed in the Tshwane Metropolitan area. ''Pretoria News'' covers a range of local news, as well as national and inter ...

'' and ''

The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', and holds undergraduate and honours degrees from the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA), known colloquially as Unisa, is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, U ...

, and a master's degree in journalism from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Motau has worked as divisional manager of corporate affairs at Mercedes-Benz South Africa, and as head of corporate affairs at

Transnet Transnet SOC Ltd is a large South African rail, port and pipeline company, headquartered in the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. It was formed as a limited company on 1 April 1990. A majority of the company's stock is owned by the Department ...

and

Sasol Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company based in Sandton, South Africa. The company was formed in 1950 in Sasolburg, South Africa and built on processes that were first developed by German chemists and engineers in the early ...

. He worked as an independent communications consultant prior to joining the Democratic Alliance. Motau left parliament at the 2019 general election.

Early life

Sejamothopo Motau was born in Lady Selborne,

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, on 18 July 1943. He started his working career as a book-keeper with the City Council of

Atteridgeville Atteridgeville is a township located to the west of Pretoria, South Africa. It is located to the east of Saulsville, to the west of West Park; to the north of Laudium and to the south of Lotus Gardens. The settlement was established in 1939, and ...

, his current constituency.

Education

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

, Motau holds a Master of Journalism degree from the

, a BA (Hons) degree in communication and a BA degree in communication and psychology from the

Early career

A former journalist, he has worked for the ''

'', where his beats were education, labour and politics, the hot topics of the day. He then joined the Africa Edition of ''

'', covering southern African politics. That sharpened his keen interest in politics but he did not become a member of any political party until he joined the DA in 2008, after which he was made him Shadow minister of Energy in 2009. His diverse work experience has given him a keen sense of what is going on within South Africa and makes him able to point out corruption within

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. It was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) and was also known by its Afrikaans name Elektrisiteitsvoorsieningskommissie (EVKOM). Eskom repre ...

, the state-owned energy provider of South Africa. A former chairman and director of various companies, Motau has held several senior management positions in some of the biggest corporations in South Africa, including

Anglo American Corporation Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

Consolidated Mines Limited, Transnet Limited,

Limited and

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

South Africa. During his time at

he was seconded to the company's marketing arm in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the

Diamond Trading Company The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) is the rough diamond sales and distribution arm of the De Beers Family of Companies. The DTC sorts, values and sells about 35% of the world’s rough diamonds by value. The DTC has a combination of wholly owned ...

, where his brief was the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. Motau is ambassador-at-large and former president of PRISA, the Institute for Public Relations and Communication Management in Southern Africa, and former chairman of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management. An accomplished public speaker, he has presented papers at conferences and conducted workshops, mainly in public relations and communication in South Africa other parts of Africa and the world.

Personal life

He is married to Ngoatladi, and has three children and four grandchildren.

References

Offices held

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motau, Sej Living people Democratic Alliance (South Africa) politicians 1943 births Members of the National Assembly of South Africa