More public embarrassment for the South African public broadcaster, after the SABC's matricless acting chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng unilaterally pulled SABC2's current affairs talk show The Big Debate off the air and also ordered all repeats cancelled.
Talk show host Siki Mgabadeli of the current affairs talk show The Big Debate on SABC2 on Thursdays at 21:30 is venting that The Big Debate has "unfortunately been pulled off the air" and that neither she nor the producers know why.
Sources tell me that Hlaudi Motsoeneng ordered The Big Debate off the SABC2 schedule. The Big Debate timeslot has been filled with rebroadcasts of Speak Out. Ironically the pulled episode of The Big Debate on Thursday night on SABC2 had the topic of the right to communicate.
The Big Debate, the SABC's town hall debate show, started to rebroadcast selected episodes since September, with the second season of The Big Debate which was supposed to kick off tonight on SABC2.
The award-winning journalist Siki Mgabadeli and the producers apparently only found out recently that that won't be the case.
"I cannot express how angry I am now," said Siki Mgabadeli. who said that there was "no reasons given. Just told it's being pulled".
Siki Mgabadeli said it's "no mistake" that The Big Debate has been pulled off of the SABC2 schedule. "We've been told, no more airing of the show". The programme already recorded three episodes.
The SABC and SABC2 didn't immediately respond to a media enquiry about the sudden cancellation of The Big Debate made on Thursday evening.
