BCCSA complaints roll in after Phat Joe’s homophobic DStv dinner show on M-Net's 1Magic channel, MultiChoice doesn't want to say why and how Cheeky Palate comments made it to air.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) has received multiple complaints about the alleged homophobic broadcast of Phat Joe's new TV dinner show on M-Net's 1Magic (DStv 103) channel while MultiChoice is shying away from directly answering questions about why the content has been allowed to air.

In Majota Kambule's (known as Phat Joe) latest TV show, Cheeky Palate, produced by Connect TV with Basetsana Kumalo as executive producer that was broadcast Friday night, the host's TV dinner guests like former beauty queen Gerry Rantseli Elsdon and Joshua Maponga made utterances condemning homosexuality as sinful.

Neither the show nor 1Magic offered any counterpoint or balance during the broadcast that quickly veered into homophobia. Other guests in the episode included Nobuntu Webster, Gogo Dineo and Zwai Bala. Phat Joe himself was suspended in 2019 from his Radio 2000 show over homophobic comments.

The BCCSA told TVwithThinus on Tuesday that it had received 5 complaints so far about Cheeky Palate and that these have been submitted to MultiChoice and M-Net who will now have to provide a copy of the broadcast and their comment.

By Tuesday it appeared as if the episode was abruptly removed from MultiChoice's DStv Now Catch Up service. 

It's not clear whether the repeats of Cheeky Palate have been pulled from the 1Magic schedule and MultiChoic that was asked if rebroadcasts on the channel have been removed, didn't answer the question. 

A media enquiry to 1Magic, an in-house produced channel by M-Net, was passed to MultiChoice.

MulticChoice in response to the media enquiry said that "The first episode featured guests from different walks of life, who were invited to speak to their experiences and thoughts on spirituality".

"We acknowledge concerns expressed by some viewers who may have been offended by some of the views expressed on the show, particularly around the LGBTIQ+ community. The views expressed are not those of MultiChoice which embraces diversity, equality and inclusion."

MultiChoice was also asked why M-Net broadcasts homophobic comments like those that were expressed on its airwaves in Cheeky Palate and why the decision was made not to include balance to the viewpoints aired. 

MultiChoice was also asked whether the show and episode of Cheeky Palate in question remain on the schedule but MultiChoice chose not to give specific answers to these questions.

SABC cans Top Billing after 23 years as broke public broadcaster can no longer afford to keep one of its last top legacy brands on the air.

Saturday will see the abrupt end of another of the SABC's last remaining top legacy brands with Top Billing on SABC3 that has been cancelled after 23 years with the South African public broadcaster that can no longer afford to pay for it.

As yet there's been no official statement from the SABC or its SABC3 channel, or Tswelopele Productions who saw its longrunning contract for the aspirational show with the SABC axed because of the broadcaster's ongoing financial problems.

It's not clear why the SABC didn't make an announcement sooner about Top Billing's demise but its axing will come as a shock to generations of South African viewers who grew up with it and emulated the styles it lifestyle trends it showed.

The SABC was asked for comment about why the SABC cancelled Top Billing and whether it is because the broadcaster can’t afford it anymore, as well as why the SABC didn’t announce the show’s ending sooner to viewers when the contract wasn’t renewed. 

Vuyo Mthembu, SABC spokesperson, said “we will be releasing a statement”.

Saturday's final Top Billing episode at 18:00 will include no nostalgic lookback, although the show's one former host and co-executive producer Basetsana Kumalo, will appear in an insert reflecting on her "25 year journey".

The iconic show that has adapted over the years since it was started by Patience Stevens, always showing "the best of the good life", has made name stars of multiple walk-and-talk presenters who found fame after being hand-picked to front the glamorous lifestyle magazine show that has been a weekly staple on the SABC schedule for decades.

The show became such a permeating force in South African popular culture that people started referring to mega-mansions as "A Top Billing house" or lavish weddings as a "Top Billing wedding" - referencing the weekly mansion and over-the-top wedding day profile inserts.

Meanwhile its walk-and-talk signature presenting style became often-imitated, widely seen as the pinnacle of what would-be presenting on local television should be.

The iconic show that moved between SABC2 and SABC3 and that weathered multiple day and timeslot changes over decades managed to keep its audience as it kept up with the times, constantly evolving and adapting to changing styles.

With high production values, including overseas travel inserts and Hollywood interviews, Top Billing kept courting a high LSM viewership as one of the last remaining legacy shows on public television that managed to bring affluent viewers, highly coveted by advertisers, to the SABC.


ALSO READ: This is why the SABC decided to cancel Top Billing on SABC3 after 27 years - and why it decided to keep the axing secret.

Top Billing on SABC3 celebrates its 25th silver anniversary with a special nostalgic look-back episode with Michael Mol and Basetsana Kumalo back as presenters.

Tonight South Africa’s longest-running, uninterrupted lifestyle magazine TV show will celebrate its 25th anniversary on South African television with Top Billing doing a special, nostalgia-laden look-back episode as current and former presenters, and the show's executive producers, do revealing and personal oral histories of their time working on the show.

Former presenters – a now greying fox Michael Mol, and ever-youthful Basetsana Kumalo are back as tonight's special presenting duo.

Top Billing's silver anniversary is a phenomenal feat for not just the show but also for the South African public broadcaster where the now iconic programme, as TV arbiter of the "good life" on SABC3 has managed to captivate audiences for two and a half decades of weekly episodes telling and showing inspiring South African success stories with a revolving roster of glambod presenters over the years, widely admired and often imitated.

Keeping up appearances for 25 years in South Africa's TV industry, Top Billing, has managed to pull off an incredible production record, only equaled by M-Net's long-running investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche that will turn 30 in 2018 – both shows bravely travelling internationally, working unrelentingly at getting exclusive interviews and access to eye-popping visual stories.

Now iconic for its hobnobbing with the rich and famous locally and abroad, exotic travelogues, fashion and movie junket inserts, jaw-dropping mansion features and presenters walking (and talking!) in designer evening wear, the Tswelopele Productions show has spawned colloquial phrases like "that's definitely a Top Billing house", "it's a Top Billing wedding" and its sign-off "goodnight and God bless!" that has become synonymous with this South Africa TV royalty institution.

More than any other local South African TV show, Top Billing has successfully spawned a bevy of presenter beauties – people South African viewers don't just love to see, but want to be.

Over the years, their names have inextricably become linked with any event – anything – "top billing" since 1992: from Neil McCarthy, Ursula Chikane, Janez Vermeiren, Jeannie D, Simba Mhere and Jo-Ann Strauss to Bonang Matheba, Nico Panagio and lately names like Jade Hubner and Chris Jaftha.

While viewers drink in the beautiful and carefully curated "Vanity Fair on television" type content weekly – sometimes criticised as empty calorie glam-TV – they're oblivious to the immeasurable production focus, energy, man hours and stressful navigation of often-impossible inserts behind the scenes and the gargantuan achievement of Top Billing that has kept it up for 25 years.

In fact, it's not just Top Billing's longevity of 25 years on the cash-strapped and often-erratic SABC (the show that started on TV1, moved to SABC2, then SABC3 and saw an untold number of day and timeslot changes) where programmes are subjected to the whims and vagaries of an ever-changing echelon of TV executives that is extremely impressive, but that it has been able to establish and keep up very high production values week after week after week, unequaled by any other local show on South African television.

What viewers don't see on Top Billing are producers constantly pushing forward and navigating through the byzantine maze of difficult publicists and gatekeepers for access to A-list stars from the worlds of entertainment, sport, business, music, film, and news - the rushed editors working late, insane global travel logistic arrangements often changing last minute and exasperated cameramen valiantly trying to still frame stars looking their best even though someone like Kim Kardashian would refuse to put down her cellphone and look up during an exclusive one-on-one interview.

Still aspirational

As fleeting styles, fashions and viewer interest all blossom and fade, Top Billing has smartly managed to adapt, change and constantly evolve over the more than two decades not just with its audience but staying carefully always just slightly ahead of them. 

Nothing is more tragic than anything old in pop culture that's lost its relevance, attraction and reason for being – yet Top Billing with agile pop culture agility, remains ahead of the pack.

Viewers keep tuning in because Top Billing, even after 25 years, remains inspiring. 

Viewers don't just want to see the spectacular house – the show makes them dream that they can maybe one day have it too. 

Viewers don't just tune in for the celebrities – they watch the interviews, although sometimes too sweet, that are carefully orchestrated to make famous folk come across as accessible, ordinary and relatable.

The glitz, glamour, décor, design, exotic cuisine and luxury travel appearing on Top Billing are at heart not show-off pieces; viewers keep watching because they see things and people they want to emulate.

For 25 years, Top Billing has continued to give South Africans on public television – in a country pummelled by a barrage of negative and disturbing news headlines – an escapist out: a passport saying that it is okay, even if just for an hour a week, to have a dream.     

Thursday night’s must-watch episode at 20:30 on SABC3 will look back with Michelle Garforth-Venter, one of the original presenters, now living in Atlanta in America, reminiscing with her family about her Top Billing years. 

Current presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee will relive the Top Billing Presenter Search reality show that he won, while Michael Mol’s family will look back on their life over the years with Top Billing.

The one wearing the Top Billing tiara in real life is Patience Stevens who started Top Billing for the SABC 25 years ago with a dream and a lot of guts in one small editing suite, and who is still the executive producer of this glamarama TV train steaming ahead a quarter of a century later.

In another insert on Thursday the show charts the friendship between this indefatigable uber-producer who noticed and roped in Basetsana Kumalo years ago – first as a presenter and then as a production partner – and their incredible producing partnership and friendship working on Top Billing all these years.

TV producer Basetsana Kumalo set to sue DRUM magazine after judge denies urgent interdict to prevent magazine from publishing cover story about alleged 'botched liposuction'.

TV producer and South African media mogul Basetsana Kumalo is set to sue DRUM magazine after failing to secure an urgent court interdict to prevent the weekly magazine from publishing an image of one of her children and a story in the latest issue on sale from today alleging that she underwent "botched liposuction".

Basetsana Kumalo, the producer whiz behind shows like Top Billing on SABC3, Pasella on SABC2 and Our Perfect Wedding, Diski Divas and Date My Family on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) went to court just past midnight this morning to prevent DRUM from publishing images of her son Nathi in a story about her alleged "botched liposuction".

Basetsana Kumalo, a former Miss South Africa popularly known as Bassie, slammed DRUM's story as "defamatory, untrue and malicious". DRUM magazine says it "stand by the cover story".

Basetsana Kumalo and her husband Romeo went to court to try and obtain an urgent court interdict to stop the publication of the article about her alleged medical procedure.

Besides surgery on her recent ankle injury, DRUM reports that she underwent cosmetic surgery as well in a story headlined "Bassie's health scare", saying "Media mogul dices with death, liposuction gone wrong?, internal bleeding".

DRUM says it has "exclusively learned that Basetsana is in a private Johannesburg hospital allegedly for liposuction gone wrong".

Judge Denise Fisher refrained from granting the urgent interdict in the South Gauteng High Court since the image of Nathi was already posted online. Basetsana Kumalo will now launch civil proceedings to sue DRUM for defamation.

"Sadly I couldn't get an urgent interdict on the lies on the lead story that I had 'botched liposuction' as the judge says the horse has bolted and the magazine is already on shelf in Cape Town," says Basetsana Kumalo.

DRUM editor Thandi Mthethwa says the magazine stands by the reporting in the cover story of its latest issue on sale now.

Shamed bride ditched at the altar as Our Perfect Wedding groom on Mzansi Magic lies that he was hijacked but got arrested and jailed for fraud and forgery.

The scandalous township wedding show Our Perfect Wedding on Mzansi Magic again raised eyebrows on Sunday after a bride was ditched at the altar with the groom arrested for fraud.

The now controversial show – for which pay-TV broadcaster M-Net apologised earlier this month calling an episode “offensive and wrong” for glamourising South African rape culture – once again shocked viewers as a groom ditched his bride at the altar and got arrested for fraud and forgery.

Our Perfect Wedding is produced by Basetsana Kumalo's Connect TV production company for M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel supplied to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.

In the latest episode on Sunday night the show saw a bride, Neriah Ratanang, shamed when her physiotherapist groom didn't show up at the wedding set for 5 December, claiming he was hijacked.

In fact Wanda Mhobo was arrested for fraud and forgery this past Friday evening.

Wanda Mhobo is set to appear in the Midrand magistrate's court today on charges of fraud and forgery. 

Wanda Mhobo will appear in court after allegedly forging proof of payment slips from Capitec Bank for his wedding planner, Ambrosia Hall and Catering.

A new 6^th season of Our Perfect Wedding is set to start on Mzansi Magic on Sunday 3 January at 19:00.

M-Net CEO Yolisa Phahle: Our exploitation TV was wrong; says 'serious internal review' for staff is coming after Mzansi Magic's Our Perfect Wedding shocker.

M-Net CEO Yolisa Phahle is apologising for the pay-TV broadcaster's exploitation TV saying it's wrong, that M-Net's communication after the Our Perfect Wedding scandal that has engulfed its Mzansi Magic channel was wrong, and that a serious internal review is coming to train and ensure that M-Net staff knows what is not acceptable to broadcast.

Viewers were shocked and outraged after Sunday's episode of Our Perfect Wedding on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) in which a man brazenly talked about how as a 28-year old taxi driver he targeted and raped school children, preyed on young girls and has to juggle fitting them into his schedule, and met the women he is now marrying when she was just 14.

The shocking entertainment show produced by Basetsana Kumalo's Connect TV and slammed as a "disgusting shame", instantly sparked massive viewer outrage.

Besides heavy criticism on social media platforms a petition was started to boycott the show and Mzansi Magic, led to complaints to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA), and public condemnation by rape crisis experts over the way in which M-Net has been "romanticising rape culture" and glamourising rape culture as entertainment".

While the previous episode of Our Perfect Wedding with Absa as sponsor also got viewers hot under the collar, Mzansi Magic ironically broadcast the latest episode during the national 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse campaign. Absa which initially gleefully went along, immediately pulled its sponsorship.

Mzansi Magic initially failed to apologise or to answer any specific questions in a media enquiry. The channel only issued a tepid general statement that said that "our reality shows reflect our society as it is" and that Mzansi Magic supplied to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform is "committed to telling stories that impact our viewers and build communities".

On Tuesday M-Net finally said in a statement that the content "was offensive and wrong".

Meanwhile Basetsana Kumalo has strangely remained silent except for saying "I am engaging intensively with my team in regards to it"on social media through her Facebook page.

Yolisa Phahle, M-Net CEO is now saying "I'm incredibly concerned by what has happened". She is apologising for the error, M-Net's content control failure, the pay-TV broadcaster's bad communication and promising a stringent internal review and staff training.

She said the Our Perfect Wedding episode, which M-Net has since pulled out of all its repeat slots, should never have been broadcast.

"We take the issue extremely seriously," Yolisa Phahle told the public broadcaster's SAfm.

"Mzansi Magic is completely opposed to this kind of exploitation. Quite clearly our internal controls failed us and we are very sorry about that. We are taking action to ensure that this doesn't happen again," said Yolisa Phahle.

"Basically we are reviewing every part of the process. What needs to happen is increased training of our staff, increased awareness of what actually is right and what actually is wrong."

"It's very important that we as Mzansi Magic are able to deal with these matters appropriately. This show should never have been broadcast."

"As soon as we were made aware of what happened, without hesitation have apologised."

"Perhaps our communication was not as it should have been," Yolisa Phahle admitted.

"Initially we were trying to explain that the story that was told - which obviously is wrong - and that we did apologise and we don't condone it."

"I don't think we went far enough. I don't think we were initially clear enough that it was wrong and should not happen and that we were at fault."

"Our communication was wrong but we also said we do not condone that behaviour," said Yolisa Phahle.

"The communication was not as it should have been. This show should not have been broadcast and we apologise to viewers and we will support any initiative undertaken to ensure that this kind of behaviour is eradicated within our society."

"We're apologising for a programme which was quite clearly inappropriate. And we're apologising that that subject matter was not dealth with sensitively."

"We are sorry. I completely understand the reaction and the outrage is completely justified. Mzansi Magic cooperates with the BCCSA and we will cooperate with any official organisation that wants to talk to us about this."

"We will be following a stringent internal review of what had happened and making sure that our staff understand what is lawful behaviour, what is acceptable to be broadcast and what is not. We really are completely committed to raise awareness and to make people aware that this behaviour is not acceptable.," said Yolisa Phahle.

Basetsana Kumalo's Connect TV also produces Date My Family and the trashy reality show Diski Divas for Mzansi Magic.

Just a few months ago in May, that reality production was involved in a vicious fight between Kat Mohoadube and Wendy Parker who allegedly assaulted a pregnant Nonhle Ndala while cameras were filming.

Nonhle Ndala opened a case of assault and the two stars' Diski Divas contracts were cancelled.

Mzansi Magic and Our Pefrect Wedding slammed for glamourising 'rape culture as entertainment'; Absa abruptly pulls its sponsorship as Mzansi Magic pulls the episode.

Viewer fury has engulfed M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel over the show Our Perfect Wedding that shocked viewers are slamming as a "disgusting shame" and said is "romanticising rape culture" with Absa that immediate withdrew its sponsorship of the show.

The barrage of complaints comes as the M-Net channel aired the last two episodes - this past Sunday's one taking things even further than the previous Sunday - proudly glamourising a groom who told of how he met his wife when she was just 14 and preyed on young girls.

Our Perfect Wedding showed "Fanie" telling viewers how he sexed school children as a 28-year old taxi driver and how his now wife had to compete for his attention.

Our Perfect Wedding on its official Facebook  said bride Bavelile - as if she was in a reality show - "has outwitted, outplayed and outlasted all the women vying for Fanie's affections".

Our Perfect Wedding, produced by Connect TV owned by Basetsana Kumalo of SABC3's Top Billing fame, stoked the fires of viewers' discontent while none of the tone-deaf M-Net executives, commissioning editors and on-air quality control checkers apparently saw anything wrong with broadcasting the latest episode in the middle of the national 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse campaign.

At least once complaint has been formally laid with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) over Our Perfect Wedding and Absa abruptly pulled its sponsorship of the show on Monday that viewers slammed for condoning and glamourising statutory rape.

"We have withdrawn our sponsorship of Our Perfect Wedding with immediate effect. We have informed Mzansi Magic," says Byron Kennedy, Absa's head of media.

In a statement the Change Drivers' Network and the Sexual Reproductive Justice Coalition of South Africa slams Mzansi Magic and Connect TV, saying "considering the rate of sexual abuse in South Africa, it is disturbing to note how Our Perfect Wedding normalises this behaviour and turned it into a love story".

"It is unacceptable and as young leaders who deal with such issues every day, the ACTIVATE! Network demands that action be taken in this regard".

"Rape culture is so normalised and in a country like ours with the type of statistics around rape and gender based violence it is highly disturbing what we were shown on Mzansi Magic," says dr Tlaleng Mofokeng.

"Perverts and self confessed paedophiles get rewarded with a TV show on Mzansi Magic and nobody in the production saw anything wrong with the narrative."

"We are meant to be standing up for women and children who are abused. How is this episode in anyway assisting with this? How is this empowering to black women and children to stand up for what is right?"

"When we air shows that use content of rape and rape culture as entertainment we spit on the face of the law and people who are abused," says Tlaneng Mofokeng.

Mzansi Magic didn't bother to respond to specific questions regarding Our Perfect Wedding in a media enquiry from TVwithThinus following the barrage of viewer outrage and complaints over the shocking show.

Mzansi Magic late on Monday night suddenly said on its website that it would now "like to apologise for airing the segment that has upset our viewers", that the channel takes the concerns of viewers seriously and that the M-Net provided channel to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform has "taken the decision not to broadcast the episode again".

A few hours earlier on Monday afternoon Mzansi Magic's publicity division issued a tepid, general statement, saying Mzansi Magic "note and acknowledge the concerns from our viewers regarding the Our Perfect Wedding episode" and that the programme's premise is to "celebrate love and the journey that couples take".

While Mzansi Magic initially sold and marketed Our Perfect Wedding to viewers as kasi escapism and light entertainment, the M-Net channel is trying to put a documentary spin on it, saying "our reality shows reflect society as it is. In the case of this episode, the couple's past brought up uncomfortable social issues which the family and community who were initially against the relationship, found a way to resolve".

Mzansi Magic says "we are committed to telling stories that impact our viewers and build our communities whilst challenging society". Mzansi Magic says the channel doesn't "condone any unlawful behaviour".

Business woman and TV mogul Basetsana Kumalo pregnant with her third bundle; 'blessed to be expecting a new addition to the family'.

Unlike a lot of the tabloid trash out there, TV with Thinus doesn't report on the private lives of telenalities - and never will - unless it starts to directly impact their professional work or on-screen performance.

With that being said, congratulations is in order for Basetsana Kumalo who tells TV with Thinus she is pregnant with her third child.

"We are delighted and feel blessed to be expecting a new addition to our family," says Basetsana Kumalo, simply known as Bassie.

The business woman and ever-sparkling South African TV mogul remains an icon of what is possible in the new South Africa, making the most of all of the chances and opportunities she got since being crowned the first black Miss South Africa in 1994.

She is married to the former SABC1 channel head, Romeo Kumalo, and the couple has two sons already: Nkosinathi Gabriel and uShaka Kgositsile Emmanuel who was born in May 2012.

BREAKING. Mohamed Kajee wins the Top Billing Dream Home competition - and the biggest prize ever given away on South African television.

Mohamed Kajee has become the winner of the biggest prize ever given away in the history of South African television by winning the R5.8 million Top Billing Dream Home competition on SABC3 which Top Billing ran for the show's 21st birthday.

Mohamed Kajee, an internal auditor from Johannesburg who've just moved to Kenilworth, Cape Town with his wife Saffiya Cachalia, won the keys to the R5 million, top floor luxury apartment in the Mirage complex in Cape Town's trendy De Waterkant area.

He also got the keys to a brand-new Infiniti Cabriolet worth R700 000, as well as a R100 000 Woolworths gift card.

The second and third place winners in the Top Billing Dream Home competition up also went home with tens of thousands of rand in prizes, making for an individual winner prize value and an overall combined prizes value over the 21 weeks of the competition which dwarves anything ever given away on a South African TV show before.

"Its the fairy tale start of our lives together in Cape Town," said Mohamed Kajee, "an apartment, a car, a whole lifestyle, a new city - its exactly what my wife and I were looking for."

In Thursday evening's Top Billing episode viewers saw how the Top 10 contestants had to endure a gruelling quiz to test their knowledge about Top Billing as they had to write down the answers on notepads and then hold it up.

"Sitting in the studio was all pressure, with all these contestants - everybody all energised and ready to win this competition. It was very difficult," said Mohamed Kajee.

The Mirage apartment was built by the Nova Group. Viewers followed the weekly progress of the entire apartment step by step, which lend an interesting new twist to the local glamarama lifestyle programme which has over the past 21 years become synonymous with showcasing South Africa's most beautiful homes.

The Mirage apartment's interior architecture was done by the award-winning architect Stefan Antoni.

It includes a gourmet Miele kitchen, a Hansgrohe bathroom, 40 MBPS unlimited internet, a cutting-edge entertainment centre, R100 000 of Woolworth decor - and a spectacular view of Cape Town and Table Mountain.

"The response we received from the public was overwhelming and the Top Billing lifestyle has become a reality for Mohamed. We congratulate him," said Patience Stevens, Top Billing co-executive producer.

"We've had such fun turning this idea into a magnificent reality," said Bonang Matheba, Top Billing presenter.

"It's been such an exciting competition to work on all together in celebration of Top Billing's 21st birthday as a show," Basetsana Kumalo, Top Billing co-executive producer told TV with Thinus.

"We worked tirelessly with a number of sponsors to make this dream come true and to give Mohamed this fantastic prize. Mohamed really is a well-deserving winner. He worked hard to answer the questions."

I asked Basetsana Kumalo what she makes about the legacy, endurance and ongoing popularity of Top Billing. "You know what, its such a humbling experience. Twenty-one years down the line we still have a South African audience glued to their screens on a Thursday, wanting to see the best of the good life, wanting to watch Top Billing with us."

"You're as good as your team. And Patience Stevens and I are blessed with a formidable, dedicated, committed team of extremely talented individuals who go above and beyond the call of duty to create quality television."

"We try to continue to not reinvent the wheel - because the format of the show works and viewers know exactly what to expect - but its always trying to keep it fresh and exciting with an infusion of some new talent, with the likes of Bonang Matheba."

"Its been a great milestone to celebrate 21 years. We've come of age, we've earned our stripes and Top Billing is known as the longest running lifestyle magazine show on South African television," Basetsana Kumalo told me.

"Its a really great accolade to be able to be known as a South African brand that produces world class international quality content. Top Billing been and remains a great, great journey. And I was really thin when we started - ha, ha - and since then its been just a phenomenal journey."

SHAMEFUL! Basetsana Kumalo and Carol Bouwer continue to tarnish their names peddling products on SABC3's No Reservations.

It's utterly disgusting and completely shameful how Basetsana Kumalo and Carol Bouwer are breaking down their reputations and tarnishing their images with the low-brow peddling of product placement in their talk show No Reservations on SABC3 without telling viewers.

Tswelopele Productions that involves Basetsana Kumalo and Carol Bouwer Productions that involves Carol Bouwer co-produce this TV travesty. Once again they had ''no reservations'' in the fourth episode on Wednesday night  at 20:00 on SABC3 to have the gaggle of women cluck all excitedly about a Glomail product called the ''Kangaroo Keeper'' after viewers already saw an ad for it - and then again right after their ''discussion'' in the show.

The problem? The ''Kangaroo Keeper'' would never have seen the light of day in No Reservations were it not for the fact that Glomail also buys TV commercials in the show. Of course viewers are never told that Glomail products feature in the show because of commercial consideration in the form of adverts. It's disgusting that neither SABC3, nor Tswelopele Productions or Carol Bouwer Productions care to be honest with viewers. Tswelopele Productions and Carol Bouwer Productions blatantly continue to shamefully exploit the TV audience by peddling wares from advertisers under the guise of a tacky talk show in prime time. A full section in the fourth episode was also devoted to an Absa sponsored event, and then viewers were also made to sit through an interview with an Absa corporate exec as studio guest, although viewers were at least made aware at the beginning that No Reservations is sponsored by Absa.

It's hugely ironic that Basetsana Kumalo and Carol Bouwer - touting women's rights and female empowerment in a so-called Woman's Day themed show - seemingly think so little of women in No Reservations that they can't be upfront and honest about pushing products onto them.

ALSO READ: Snail slime pay-for-say fiasco! ''The advertiser has paid for the exposure they are getting inside the show,'' admits SABC3.
ALSO READ: Snail slime shocker! Viewers in outrage over crass Glomail product endorsement in SABC3's ''sell'out'' No Reservations.

BREAKING. Carol Bouwer, Basetsana Kumalo, Michelle Garforth and Katie Mohamed set to host new ''No Reservations'' talk show on SABC3.

You're reading it here first.

I can tell you that Carol Bouwer, Basetsana Kumalo, Michelle Garforth and Katie Mohamed are set to become the new foursome hosts of a brand-new local weekly South African TV talk show entitled No Reservations that will debut on SABC3 from Wednesday, July 21 at 20:00.

No Reservations will be SABC3's latest addition into turning the SABC's only commercial TV station into a now overly-saturated glam-infused lifestyle channel, already drenched in Top Billing, the new The A List (read about it RIGHT HERE), Life's a Journey and Top Dogs.

Although billed as a talk show, the producers of No Reservations also promise that ''it will not change the world, but it will certainly make the world talking'' and that No Reservations will be ''in the front row of every red carpet in the country and abroad. It will bring the other side of the glamorous world of entertainment and it will need no reservations to be there''. Hopefully the No Reservations producers  will be able to say how they're going to achieve that when the show debuts towards the end of next month. No Reservations plans to have high society guests, politicians and local entertainment stars as well as guest presenter Jen Sue over the course of 26 planned episodes.

No Reservations on SABC3 will be produced by Carol Bouwer Productions and Tswelopele Productions.