Sejamothopo Motau - Biography

Sejamothopo Motau, an independent communication consultant, is president of the Council for Public Relations and Communication Management in South Africa; past president, Fellow and Ambassador-at-Large, of PRISA – the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa; and THE STAR’s Public Relations Man of the Year 2000. He has more than 15 years’ experience in public relations, media relations; corporate communication and corporate affairs. He also has more than 15 years’ journalism experience gained mostly at the Pretoria News and The Star. Sej joined Anglo American Corporation in 1987 as a senior press officer. Later that year he was transferred to diamond company De Beers, as corporate communication officer.

Sej Motau, Chair Elect

In 1990 he was seconded to the Central Selling Organisation (now Diamond Trading Company), the De Beers diamond marketing company in London, where his brief was Canada and the United States.

He returned to Anglo as divisional manager, Group Corporate Communication, and later joined Transnet to head the transportation group’s communication department. He was a member of the Transnet Group Management Board. Until recently, he was general manager corporate affairs and member of Group Management at Sasol Limited.

Sej is a Fulbright scholar with a Master of Journalism degree from the University of California, Berkeley; a BA honours degree in Communication and a BA degree in Communication and Psychology from the University of South Africa.

Sej has guest-lectured on affirmative action and diversity management at the University Stellenbosch Business School. He was a member of Transnet’s Turn Strategy committee and scenario planning team and Sasol’s employment equity committee and scenario planning team.

He is a non-executive chairman of BlackRock Communication (Pty) Ltd; non-executive director of Sabinet Online; Staffgro (Pty) Ltd; the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (Prisa) and the Prisa Education and Training Centre. He is former non-executive director of Cullinan Holdings Limited, and Point Waterfront Development Company. He was a member of the Eskom Council. He is chairman of the council of the Tshwane South College for Further Education and Training; council member of the Grahamstown Foundation and a board member of the Centre for Development and Enterprise.

An accomplished motivational speaker, Sej has spoken at various forums in South Africa and abroad on public relations, crisis communication, multicultural communication, affirmative action, and diversity management. He has travelled in Southern, East and West Africa; the US, Canada, the UK, Western Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Israel. He has also visited Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei.