Phat Joe’s content riles his listeners

2 500 irate, sign petition

APETITION to oust the latest addition to the East Coast Radio team collected nearly 2 500 signatures in a mere 24 hours. The station, aware of the petition, said all complaints would be taken seriously and would be dealt with on merit.

East Coast Radio general manager Boni Mchunu said: “We have received complaints. But we have also received numerous compliments that the show is entertaining and Phat Joe, pictured, is offering something that KZN radio has never been exposed to before.”

Listener Hayley Going launched the campaign via Change.org in response to some of the radio personality’s areas of discussion since he joined the station on August 15 in its drive-time slot between 3 and 6pm.

In the letter accompanying the petition, addressed to the radio station’s owners Kagiso Media, she accused the host of making racist comments; sharing sexual innuendo; referring to Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya as “him”; and condoning adultery, among other controversial topics.

Going said he had mentioned tattooing a baby and made jokes about rape in jail.

She said: “You (ECR) fired Kevin Minter-Brown (former DJ) for suggesting people run on the highway (after two cyclists were killed on the M4 earlier this year), yet you allow this disgrace to carry on with his inappropriate, sexist, sexual and just plain disgusting content.”

Going added: “Kagiso Media, your vision is to ‘Build communities for good’. How is this building the community? Your presenter is inciting the community, promoting sexism, racism and child abuse.

“The only unity that is happening is that you are bringing people together to sign this petition to get rid of him.”

A Richards Bay resident who signed the petition said: “There is a very fine line between controversial and just plain inappropriate. Maybe a very, very late night slot would be better suited to Phat Joe, although I personally would never listen to his show by choice.”

Another said: “I used to always listen to the station. This oke has honestly ruined it for me. I can’t stand listening to the fake American accent. And the content he speaks about… I have to stop myself from setting the radio on fire.”

The DJ, via his Twitter feed, simply posted a link to the petition and said: “Why are people petitioning against me?”

This prompted his fans to jump to his defence, calling his detractors racists, haters and jealous.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa said yesterday in response to queries from The Star’s sister paper, The Mercury: “At this stage we can confirm that we have received complaints.”

The body said it did not accept petitions, so would not be “dealing” with the signatures collected.

Mchunu said: “All complaints are taken seriously.”