Veteran TV journalist Faith Daniels (39) has dumped the SABC and is now the head of news for Kagiso Media's news brands since the beginning of 2016.
Faith Daniels joined Kagiso Media to head up the news division at Jacaranda FM in Gauteng and East Coast Radio in KwaZulu-Natal since the beginning of this year.
In late 2015 Faith Daniels was one of a group of SABC news staffers who was unhappy with the SABC over alleged unfair work practices and involved in a labour dispute with the SABC that got so ugly that the SABC gave them letters of intention to suspend them.
According to reports, Clive Govender and Faith Daniels were "under immense pressure" at the SABC and apparently "unhappy about the level of incompetency in some of the regions" at the SABC's SABC News division, while work was piling up.
According to insiders they were getting paid less than other SABC News colleagues working in the same positions around the country and have to perform as central desk editors.
The additional burned on the workers came about when they were allegedly forced to take on the increased workload when the SABC launched its new second version of SABC News (DStv 404) as a 24-hour TV news channel on MultiChoice's DStv platform, replacing the closed down SABC News International which failed.
The SABC News employees asked for better pay and back pay for the more work and duties they've been performing - for some going as far back as 2011.
Now Faith Daniels who anchored the 13:00 news on SABC3 and who served as editor in the public broadcaster's Johannesburg newsroom and who also worked at SAfm and Talk Radio 702 is gone from the SABC.
"As journalists, our stories are nothing special without the ordinary voice. If we cannot hold government, business and everyone else accountable through the ordinary voice, then we are failing ourselves," says Faith Daniels in a statement regarding her Kagiso Media appointment.
"Our radio news offerings have always been strong, and we're getting great traction digitally," says Nick Grubb, Kagiso Media's chief executive for radio.
"Faith will be helping us take this to another level though. Our newsrooms are a key centre for producing original content every day, and great content is our passion and focus."
