by Thinus Ferreira
The brain-drain of MultiChoice's high-profile top executives rank continues with Gideon Khobane, MultiChoice's group executive of general entertainment, who has exited the Randburg-based satellite pay-TV operator for a position at Amazon.
Insiders told TVwithThinus that Gideon Khobane resigned and left MultiChoice earlier this month citing personal reasons, telling MultiChoice staffers that he decided to leave the pay-TV operator for a new executive position at Amazon.
Amazon which has been advertising multiple job vacancies in South Africa over the past few months is rapidly making inroads with its Amazon Prime Video video streaming service in Africa and is planning to scale up its e-commerce commercial activities, as well as its Prime Video presence and content rollout in South Africa and across the continent.
Gideon Khobane who joined M-Net in 2008 and was a former director of M-Net's general entertainment channels, became SuperSport CEO in February 2016.
Gideon Khobane served as MultiChoice's group executive of general entertainment for just a year and a half since his promotion to this position in October 2020.
Neither MultiChoice spokesperson Itumeleng Thulare, nor MultiChoice's PR companies The Duma Collective or JR Communications responded to questions in a media query made a week ago about Gideon Khobane's resignation. MultiChoice didn't announce Gideon Khobane's exit.
Nkateko Mabaso who was also promoted in October 2020 with the title of MultiChoice's group executive in charge of programming, also exited MultiChoice after he worked in the position for a year until he resigned, joining Netflix as director of licensing and co-productions for Africa.
Besides Nkateko Mabaso and Gideon Khobane, MultiChoice has seen a big exodus of senior and high-profile executives over the past two years.