Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
SABC changes smack of anti-African bias
THE changes at the SABC are motivated by political considerations and an anti-African bias that knows no bounds.
Why was Sakina Kamwendo removed from a rewarding three-hour current affairs radio show and Media Monitor television show? She was replaced with an incompetent white male, Stephen Grootes.
Kamwendo is now presenting an hour-long show between midday and 1pm. She was removed because she is one of very few, if not the only, objective presenters this country has ever produced.
The last straw was when she showed Robert Sobukwe’s picture on Media Monitor after March 21 this year and asked if the PAC wasn’t justified to question the renaming of Sharpeville Day to Human Rights Day. It was for the first time that I saw Sobukwe’s picture on SABC television. She did radio shows on Sobukwe, Zephania Mothopeng and Jafta Masemola, something that was unheard of before she presented from 6am to 9am.
She crossed paths with the current communications minister and party hack Nomvula Mokonyane several times during interviews with her on corruption at her former ministry, which incensed Mokonyane intensely.
The SABC hasn’t explained why they removed Kamwendo halfway through the last hour of her last morning show. The flimsy explanation by head of SABC radio Nada Wotshela during an interview with Peter Ndoro is unacceptable because Wotshela said, “I think she was removed because she moved away from her script.”
This is speculative and therefore not official. Even if it were official, it’s unacceptable, since Kamwendo was telling us listeners that she didn’t agree with the changing of the new format of the show she was requested to present and that management would explain to us, the listeners.
Management hasn’t explained to us after more than a month. Why was Elvis Presslin removed from the weekend current affairs show and replaced with Michelle Constant?
Why was Tsepiso Makwetla removed from the afternoon current affairs shows and moved to the 5am to 6am show? Why was Richard Mwamba, who presented African music, removed and replaced with Rowena Baird? Richard Mwamba is the best African music presenter. Why was he removed?
Why was Mandla Shongwe removed when he gave us important updates prior to Kamwendo’s show?
These changes don’t make sense at all and we are aware the unions representing SABC workers are also not happy because they were not consulted about these changes as well as about 31 employees who were fired.
The unions are also unhappy about the commercialisation of the public broadcaster. Need the SABC apparatchiks be reminded from time to time that they are a public broadcaster? There is something very wrong going on at the SABC.