In the latest shocking recurrence of brutal censorship at the South African public broadcaster, executives at the SABC's SAfm radio station on Friday morning abruptly pulled the brilliant presenter Sakina Kamwendo off the air halfway through presenting her final The Forum @ 8 morning show, once again leaving South Africans asking why they should bother to pay their SABC TV licences to an organisation that tramples on freedom of speech as enshrined by the South African constitution.
The latest censorship scandal at the SABC saw SAfm execs pull the plug on Sakina Kamwendo halfway through her show at 08:30, awkwardly playing just music for half an hour with no explanation to viewers as to what was going on as SABC management shut her down.
In her final morning show, Sakina Kamwendo told SAfm listeners that she was kept in the dark about what her future would be at SAfm when her freelance contract ended. She also spoke about how difficult it's been for SABC staffers who are severely demoralised.
SABC execs didn't want that talk on the public broadcaster and decided to censor the show and immediately pulled Sakina Kamwendo off the air, making things worse as viewers started blasting the SABC and SAfm for removing her without the chance to say goodbye.
The Right to Know Campaign (R2K Campaign) said "The censorship of Sakina Kamwendo is a throwback to the era of Hlaudism. A clear reminder that South Africans must still fight to free the SABC of censorship".
The South African Editors' Forum (Sanef) in a statement slammed the SABC over its latest censorship incident, saying "this incident with Sakina Kamwendo was extremely poorly handled and smacks of censorship" and that Sakina Kamwendo should have been given the space to explain to her listeners what had transpired with her show and with the termination of her contract as the show's presenter.
"Limiting Sakina Kamwendo's freedom of speech and expression in this blatant manner is a serious issue and Sanef would not want to see a return to the SABC’s days of censorship."
"The media industry should be supporting all women in this sector – and especially highly competent, courageous black women such as Sakina Kamwendo. We need to ensure the diversity of voices in the industry. Sanef will be engaging the SABC on the matter."
The SABC's chief operating officer, Chris Maroleng, who was blasted on social media on Friday and Saturday, said its not SABC top management who took the decision to censor Sakina Kamwendo and he blamed SAfm executives for the disgraceful act.
In response to a media enquiry from TVwithThinus, the SABC said that its "executive management has noted with concern the incident that occured on the programme, The Forum@8 on SAfm" and that the SABC's executive management "has requested a full report on the incident and will engage with all involved to get the facts on what really happened and why".
The SABC said it's committed to "deal with this matter in a fair and transparent manner in the interest of the SABC and the public of South Africa".
Social media was flooded with support for Sakina Kamwendo and a non-stop barrage of criticism for the SABC and SAfm over its inept and shocking censorship and bad, amateur and unprofessional handling of the situation.
Veteran TV and radio presenter Redi Tlhabi said "I've seen abusive, toxic, incompetent anchors being treated better than this. Whose ego had to be accommodated at Sakina's expense? Not even a dignified exit after 10 years' service? Pulled off air in middle of show? Never heard of it."
Veteran radio presenter Jenny Crwys-Williams said "the cretins who pulled you off air are the ones looking stupid, they are the ones contemptuous of their audience and they are the ones who need to be sent to a radio gulag to learn what radio is about".
Listener Oageng Tidikwe said "I'm a villager based in the rural part of the Northwest province and I regularly pay my TV licence. Is it that difficult to announce SAfm's new line-up? I can't say I'll listen on the radio because you're likely to play music like you unexpectedly did on Sakina's show."
Listener Neo Nala said "for SAfm to kick her off midair was not just disrespectful to the listeners but immensely disrespectful to her".
"Spent 40 years in radio. Ran 5FM and Good Hope FM. I did strategy for all 18 SABC stations, including SAfm. I've never seen such a shocking decision," said another listener.
Listener WaMphuthi said "the way the SABC and SAfm treated Sakina this morning was disrespectful. There is a way you manage people's exit and what happened this morning is not one of them. Hope Chris Maroleng and team will enlighten us as listeners and be big enough to explain this morning".
Listener Ken Bonant said "I thought Hlaudi Motsoeneng was bad, but this new authoritarian dictatorship at the SABC is astonishing. And then to go and censor the free speech of Sakina Kamwendo's SAfm last show and pull it halfway ... abominable!"
Tshegs said "I thought there'd be a farewell speech from Sakina before the 09:00 news but we were instead left listening to music, which I thought was odd. The SABC must leave Hlaudi tendencies in the past."
Listener Ntobeko Khuluse said "Wow! The more things change at the SABC the more they remain the same. Sakina Kamwendo was not given an opportunity to say her goodbyes on SAfm because the management didn't like what she and listeners were saying, so disappointing. Change, what change Chris Maroleng?"
Listener Aziel Luka Khaile said "Hi ausi, I suspect you've been unceremoniously removed from the studio, they played music non-stop until 09:00. I share your pain as we are equally devastated by your removal as the AMLive host".
Last week on her show, the COPE political party's spokesperson Dennis Bloem called in and said "That's the reason why these people, Chris Maroleng and them, want to remove you from SAfm because these people don't want us to hear such things".
"You are too open, too bold, to expose these types of things. If they are going to remove you and other people, they must know that we will fight. We fought Hlaudi Motsoeneng and now Hlaudi's gone. He will also be gone. We want an open and transparent SABC, not an SABC who's hiding things. You are doing an excellent job for 6 years. I have never listened to SAfm, especially The Forum@8. Now they want to remove you to bring in stooges of them."
