Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s lawyer has vowed to put up a fight for his client as a disciplinary hearing got underway in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Motsoeneng’s lawyer Zola Majavu said they were ready for the hearing.

“We are prepared for anything put against our client…we will do what we have to do to protect our client’s rights, as it is our job,” he said.

The defiant Motsoeneng is facing concurrent disciplinary hearings stemming from a Public Protector report that found that he had lied about his qualifications, purged staff and increased his salary exorbitantly during his tenure at Auckland Park.

The other charge is related to a brazen press briefing on April 19, at which Motsoeneng rubbished the SABC interim committee, appointed to fix the trail of distraction Motsoeneng is accused of leaving behind at the public broadcaster.

A ruling by the Western Cape High Court in December last year found that Motsoeneng was unfit to hold any office until such time a fresh disciplinary hearing cleared him of any wrongdoing, or if a court set aside the Public Protector’s report which implicated him in lying about his academic qualifications, purging staff, and giving himself generous salary increases.

Motsoeneng’s attempts to appeal the ruling failed.

Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) would on Wednesday be briefed on the irregular expenditure at the SABC after a probe by an auditing firm.