Mbau & Co ‘ not gelling on show ’
FORMER SABC chief operating officer COO and now group executive for corporate affairs Hlaudi Motsoeneng has allegedly told a management meeting to dump Somizi Mhlongo, Ntombi Ngcobo and Khanyi Mbau from their Metro FM show.
It is alleged Motsoeneng said the trio, who have no pedigree in radio presentation, said their co-presenting on their mid-morning show was not working.
On the other end, Motsoeneng allegedly canned a paid-for-feature in Metro FM s on
’ Monday night as he deemed the content too critical of president Jacob Zuma and his government.
SABC officials have revealed that Motsoeneng s decision on the three
’ presenters was informed by the station s loss of listeners.
’ It is believed that Motsoeneng told the meeting the SABC made a big mistake by appointing the trio to the slot, without an experienced broadcaster to help them.
Motsoeneng allegedly said Mbau, Mhlongo and Ngcobo were not supposed to be given the show on their own, but should have been accompanied by a seasoned radio personality such as Oskido or Glen Lewis. Motsoeneng confirmed he made the statement at the meeting.
However, he said improvements were not only meant for Metro FM but for all radio stations. I used Metro FM as an example to “emphasise the point of moving certain talent to other slots due to lack of gelling amongst them,” Motsoeneng said. For Metro FM, Somizi and “Khanyi and the other lady are not gelling and we should have teamed them with an experienced talent like Oskido. Other presenters are good and “others are not, and in our case three people is too much and one or two must be taken somewhere. I m happy about them, but they “’ need to be separated. Maybe others can be taken to a 3pm slot because we don t plan to fire anyone.”
’ Meanwhile, SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago confirmed talkshow host Rams Mabote was gagged. This feature is sponsored by “Investec. Because it is a sponsored feature they come up with topics for it and the script all the time,” Kganyago said. But the programmes manager of “the station has to look at the script, which is his job to do. This week the script came and it “was not talking economics, it was talking politics. That show is meant to deal with economic issues. We have the principles that were communicated many times that political issues are dealt with by our news and current affairs. This matter was communicated “to the client to say today s script is
‘ ’ about politics more than it is about the economy, the right place to deal with politics is there not here ’. They were given an opportunity “to change the script and they didn t.
’ That is why the feature did not go on. You cannot say because you are sponsoring a segment you can do whatever you want because at the end the buck stops with the station. The person who gave you the info “must also leak the script so that you see what was it about.”
He insisted that Motsoeneng had nothing to do with the decision but the programmes manager.
Investec declined to comment.