2024's 18th Metro FM Awards announces ceremony and black carpet presenters.

by Thinus Ferreira

The 18th Metro FM Awards taking place on 27 April at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga for a second consecutive year will have Luthando "Lootlove" Shosha and Tebogo Thekisho, known as ProVerb, as the hosts.

The SABC radio station says the music awards ceremony's black carpet coverage will be done this year by SABC1 presenter Nomalanga Shozi and DJ Sabby. 

TV personality Lamiez Holworthy and the 5FM presenter Zanele Potelwa will co-host the Green Room where they will interview category winners.

The theme of 2024's Metro FM Awards is "Back to the Future" with the Mpumalanga provincial government once again pouring millions of rand into the awards show to promote tourism to the province. The Motsepe Foundation is also a sponsor.

The 18th Metro FM Awards will be broadcast live on SABC1 and the public broadcaster's streaming service SABC+ on Saturday 27 April from 20:00. 

It is preceded on 26 April by a pre-party on the Friday evening at The Prestige Lifestyle Grand, and followed the day after on Sunday 28 April by the Metro FM Love Movement taking place at the Lowveld National Botanical Gardens.

"I'm thrilled and deeply honoured to be hosting the 2024 edition of the Metro FM Music Awards," says Luthando Shosha in a Metro FM statement.

"It's also a monumental career moment, as I step into the role of hosting my first awards ceremony. I'm eager to bring joy, laughter, and unforgettable moments to the awards show, alongside Proverb. Here is to creating magic together on screen."

Kina Nhlengethwa, Metro FM business manager, says "South African music is thriving, attracting new audiences globally and inspiring black excellence. It was only fitting that this year's theme be carried by some of the industry's best presenters, who bring a wealth of knowledge about diverse facets of the South African arts and entertainment scene."

SABC+ creates a Metro FM Music Awards pop-up channel for 2023’s ceremony.

by Thinus Ferreira

SABC+ is creating a Metro FM Music Awards pop-up channel on the public broadcaster's video streaming service which will show highlights from the previous seven award shows, special library programming around it, and end with live streaming of this year's pre-party, black carpet arrivals, main awards show and afterparty.

The 17th Metro FM Music Awards will be taking place on 6 May in the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga where winners will be announced across 18 categories.

This year saw the revival of the radio station's awards since it last took place in 2017 in Durban under a cloud of suspicion over its credibility, following numerous corruption allegations of being rigged due to payola, "buying" of awards and collusion in the judging process.

SABC+ will now run a Metro FM Music Awards pop-up channel for a month, from 29 April until 28 May, as the streaming service's second pop-up channel initiative following SABC Festive which ran as a holiday entertainment pop-up channel during December 2022.

The Metro FM Music Awards pop-up channel will show selected highlights from the previous seven Metro FM Award ceremonies between 2010 and 2017 between 29 April and 5 May between 20:00 and 22:00 at night.

SABC1 programming over the years that tied into the awards show - like episodes of Selimathunzi (1 - 4 May, 8 - 11 May, 18:00), The Get-Together Music Specials (29 April - 5 May, 7 - 14 May, 20:00), Live Amp and The Real Goboza Show - will also get a rerun on the channel.

The Metro FM Music Awards pop-up channel will then live stream the 17th Metro FM Music Awards pre-awards press conference on 4 May at 10:00.

On 5 May the pop-up channel will live stream 2023's Metro FM Music Awards Pre-Party from 18:00. 

Besides being broadcast live on SABC1 on 6 May, SABC+ will live stream the Black carpet arrivals from 18:00 for two hours, followed by the 2023 Metro FM Music Awards from 20:00 until 22:00. That will be followed by a live stream on the pop-up channel of the award show's official After-party at 22:00.

Lerato Kganyago and Katlego Maboe have been announced as the two main hosts for this year's revived music awards ceremony.

Coronavirus: The SABC investigating Somizi Mhlongo over his Covid-19 'dangerous joke' fake news.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African public broadcaster says it's launching its own investigation into Somizi Mhlongo after the reality TV star and choreographer's alleged Covid-19 fake news premature announcement about an extension of South African's national lockdown period that he apologised for and called "a dangerous statement".

South Africa's minister of transport, Fikile Mbalula on Friday opened a case against Somizi Mhlongo for allegedly flouting the 21-day Covid-19 coronavirus national lockdown regulations by creating and spreading fake news and misinformation.

Somizi Mhlongo was charged in terms of regulation 11(5)(c) of the Disaster Management Act, in relation to publishing any statement through any medium including social media with the intention to deceive any other person about measures by the government to address Covid-19.

It followed after Dineo Ranaka did an Instagram Live broadcast on Thursday morning in which Somizi Mhlongo was heard saying that Fikile Mbalula told him that president Cyril Ramaphosa would extend the country's national lockdown for a further two weeks before Ramaphosa made the announcement in his Thursday night live televised address.

Fikile Mbalula said he never spoke to Somizi Mhlongo about an extension of South Africa's national lockdown situation, with Mhlongo who has since apologised on social media and said that he was just joking and that he "did not know about the extension just like everybody else" and that "I apologise to the minister for such a dangerous statement".

Somizi Mhlongo is an Idols judge and star of the reality show Living the Dream with Somizi on MultiChoice's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel and earlier this year shared his wedding build-up and ceremony on MultiChoice's Showmax streaming service in the series Somizi & Mohale: The Union.  He is also a presenter on the SABC's Metro FM radio station.

"This matter has been referred to the law enforcement authorities and we will let the process unfold. In line with our internal processes, we will also engage Somizi Mhlongo-Motaung, investigate the matter and will be guided by our policies on an appropriate action to be taken," says Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson.

"The SABC regrets the incident concerning Metro FM on-air personality, Somizi Mhlongo-Motaung. Although Somizi Mhlongo-Motaung's utterances were not part of the broadcast of his programme on Metro FM, we would like to put it on record that we do not tolerate any behaviour that is in contravention with the government's regulations under the Disaster Management Act on fake news and information peddling," says Mmoni Seapolelo.

Philly Kubheka, Mzansi Magic spokesperson, told TVwithThinus that M-Net doesn't have any comment and will not be doing any investigations on Somizi.

The Somizi Mhlongo case is the latest high-profile case this week of people who got into trouble for allegedly flouting rules of South Africa's national lockdown period.

While the country's communications minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, wasn't charged, president Cyril Ramaphosa this week placed her on 2 months "special leave", one month of which will be unpaid, after an image was posted publicly of her doing lunch at the home of South Africa's former deputy minister of higher education and training, Mduduzi Manana.

The Bachelor South Africa's bachelor Marc Buckner of the second season of the reality show screened on M-Net (DStv 101) said on Wednesday that he was allegedly arrested for allegedly violating the national lockdown regulations and fined R1 500 after he was walking back home from shopping.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo told me on Friday night that he can’t confirm whether Marc Bucker was arrested or not but said if a member of the public receives a lockdown period fine and want to challenge that they’re welcome to go to court. 

 "A written J534 fine you don’t have to pay it if you feel that you have been in any way prejudiced or you feel that you were not given the fine justifiably. Then you can go to court and challenge that."

On Tuesday the Durbanville man, Steven Birch appeared in the Cape Town magistrate's court after a case was opened against him for allegedly spreading fake news about Covid-19. In a widely-shared video message on social media he falsely claimed that the South African government's coronavirus testing kits were contaminated and will infect people.


ALSO READ: Coronavirus: South Africa's transport minister Fikile Mbalula lays charge against reality TV star Somizi Mhlongo for allegedly spreading Covid-19 fake news.

The SABC says it's not planning to sell off its struggling SABC3 TV channel, nor its 5FM, Good Hope FM or Metro FM radio stations.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African public broadcaster says that the SABC has made no plans or decisions to get rid off and to sell of either its SABC3 TV channel, nor its Metro FM, 5FM, or Good Hope FM radio stations.

The SABC has been evaluating what the struggling broadcaster's "non-core" assets and services are which it should get rid of, but the broadcaster says SABC3, Metro FM, Good Hope FM and 5FM have not been targeted.

"The SABC has been made aware of an article by Inside Politics African Narrative published on 4 February 2020, claiming to have exclusive access to a document titled ‘Repurposing the State-Owned Enterprises as Instruments for Economic Growth’," Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson says in a statement.

According to the article, the public broadcaster could sell off SABC3, Metro FM, 5FM and Good Hope FM and dump its entire commercial broadcasting services as part of reducing its broadcasting mandate.

"Because of the potential uncertainty this information can cause the SABC believes it is necessary to clarify that it is not intending to sell the assets mentioned in the article and has had no discussions with government in this regard," the SABC says.

"As requested by National Treasury and the ministry of communications and digital technologies, the SABC is conducting a thorough process of assessing all its assets, determining which are core and non-core, taking into account a range of factors including public mandate, licence conditions and financial contribution."

The SABC says that the SABC board has approved comprehensive assessment criteria for determining its "core media assets",and says that this includes not only TV and radio channels which are contributing to its public mandate but also ones which help to fund the SABC's public service obligations.

"The SABC board has already identified non-core property assets and has drawn up a list of properties for disposal, as required by National Treasury preconditions."

"The potential disposal of any of the SABC's media assets involves a much more complex decision matrix, with factors such as the public interest, the public mandate and the future financial sustainability of the SABC being central to any decision," the SABC says.

"The SABC remains committed to ensuring that the public service broadcaster fulfils its public service mandate and at the same time striving to be a financially sustainable institution," says Mmoni Seapolelo.

SABC fires Thato Sikwane on Tuesday from Metro FM on the same day as DJ Fresh suddenly pops up on news channel Newzroom Afrika on DStv.

The SABC fired the suspended DJ Fresh - real name Thato Sikwane - on Tuesday with immediate effect, dumping him from the South African public broadcaster's Metro FM radio station and slamming him for lying on the same day as he suddenly showed up on the morning show of the South African TV news channel Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405).

DJ Fresh who presented Metro FM's Fresh Breakfast show was benched in mid-June 2019 after refusing to apologise and after complaints with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA), following his use of the Zulu swear word "msunery" in response to a radio listener. Another Metro FM listener was told to "stop tweeting from his ars*".

After an internal fight between DJ Fresh and the SABC, he suddenly popped up on Newzroom Afrika's Breaking Dawn programme on Tuesday, alongside Sizwe Dhlomo, Gugu Mhlungu, Natasha Thorp and Tumi Kgasoe.

On Tuesday afternoon the SABC in a statement said it has dumped DJ Fresh from Metro FM with immediate effect and that he had lied about apologising for his filthy on-air rant and for which the SABC was found guilty by the BCCSA.

On 8 July DJ Fresh in a statement said that a meeting took place where he and the SABC agreed that he would apologise unreservedly.

The SABC said it fired DJ Fresh after "his usage of offensive language on-air, resulting in the SABC being found guilty and sanctioned by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) for contravention of clause 6 of the BCCSA’s Code of Conduct".

"In addition, his conduct brought the SABC into disrepute". The SABC said that DJ Fresh was offered an opportunity to "remedy his contractual breaches" but failed and refused to do so.

"This conduct resulted in the irretrievable breakdown of the trust relations between the SABC and himself. In a letter dated 28 June 2019, Thato Sikwane’s lawyers further stated that 'it is our client’s instruction that he must either return to work immediately, alternatively, that upon his commencement on 15 July 2019, it must be emphatically understood that no apology will be tendered".

The SABC said the letter from DJ Fresh's legal team was contrary to his statement that was released on Monday 8 July.

Nada Wotshela, the SABC's radio boss, said that "the SABC continues to be committed to ensuring sound governance and internal controls irrespective of an employee’s or freelancer’s position".

"We are grateful to the team who have held the fort during this period" and that "when an independent contractor breaches a contract of engagement, the SABC will invoke the provisions of the same contract in line with consequence management."

On 9 July DJ Fresh in a statement responding to being fired by the SABC said he will start a new job on 1 August and that the SABC has been "a burdensome monkey on his back" which he has been freed from.

"I have no regrets about how this worked out, because I firmly believed that fair labour practice is about correction more than it is about being grossly punitive. As a principle, I would sooner walk away from a job (any job) than accept such abuse."

"To those I offended with the use of the word msunery, I apologise unreservedly, and will do better next time. I start a brand new show and chapter on 1 August 2019," DJ Fresh said.

Fired Metro FM sportscaster Robert Marawa slams 'crazy, wrong-doing' SABC executives; says truth will come out, that there's lots of unhappy people at the SABC.

The fired veteran sportscaster Robert Marawa who got sacked by the SABC from his Metro FM show in the week without being told directly after he stood up for his suspended producer is calling out the SABC's "crazy" and "wrong-doing" executives.

He told Power FM in a radio interview that the truth will come out and that there's a lot of unhappy people at the SABC.

In the week the SABC's latest head of sport Sully Motsweni and the acting general manager for radio Orapeleng Lethebe fired the veteran sportscaster Robert Marawa who has been doing the hugely popular Sports@6 show on Metro FM, and said in a statement that the SABC "wishes him well".

The beleaguered and cash-strapped SABC that no longer has a head of radio and is awaiting yet another government bail-out, then admitted that it didn't tell Robert Marawa directly that he was fired, with SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago claiming that the SABC couldn't get hold of him.

Three weeks ago Robert Marawa refused to return to his Metro FM show out of solidarity after what he called the unfair suspension of his radio show producer Beverly Maphangwa for including a short comment from a sports commentator in the show - something that presenters are allowed to do.

The SABC then sent Robert Marawa a letter saying he has to give reason why he shouldn't be fired for failing to show up for work.

Robert Marawa who also works as a sportscaster or pay-TV broadcaster MultiChoice and its SuperSport media outfit had to find out from other SABC staffers that he was abruptly fired this week when they got a company-circulated internal email and they in turn told him.

"SABC Sport came through from the beginning of June and took over the running of the show as opposed to Metro FM running the show," Robert Marawa told the Power FM radio station in an interview on Friday, explaining the bizarre circumstances around his firing from the SABC.

"It suddenly became SABC Sport now in charge of all sports on all radio stations, including Metro FM".

"I did say as long as you guys don't interfere with the editorial of the show, I don't have a problem with this new plan that you guys have. But it didn't take long for it to really surface that it was about the editorial that was the key factor," said Robert Marawa.

"So somebody who is coming in, who's new with a set agenda, can't come through and tell me - especially if they don't have a background in broadcasting, they've got a background in telling TV presenters what to wear on weekends, and you've been in marketing and you've been doing all of these things - and then all of a sudden you feel you've got the power to come through and tell us that."

"So they have trumped up charges against Bev, suspended her. But they never ever had a hearing for her. She never went for a disciplinary hearing to say 'charge 1'."

"So they suspended her, never charged her, I took myself off air and then as a result I'm now charged with withdrawing my services. But I withdrew my services, notifying them I'm not coming through."

"Then yesterday they reinstated her, but never mentioned any of the two charges that she had so-called broken within the SABC."


'These guys are crazy'
Robert Marawa told Power FM that "my lawyer actually laughed at the charges and said these guys are crazy, and crazy they are. And that is why with sober minds we will approach it in a manner where South Africans will be able to see what has gone on here. I'm not fighting to get my job back. It's not about that."

"We will be able to present a very clear case of why the public has been duped and why after I had gone to the SABC interim board myself, David Kekana and a whole group of people have gone and approached SABC board deputy chairperson Mathata Tsedu, Krish Naidoo in the presence of acting chief operating officer (COO) Bessie Tugwana".

Robert Marawa said they mentioned to the SABC's interim board the "shenanigans" that Sully Motsweni "is committing as we speak who has been in charge of SABC Sport and it has to do with money, and it has to do with wrong-doing".

Robert Marawa told Power FM that she was in the meeting that was held during the week "recused themselves, said they're going to Sandton, but ultimately came back into the meeting to then say to everybody 'Robert has got to go - immediately', which was her call".

He said "people mustn't read and then fall prey to the lies that these people are bringing forward".


'When people are doing wrong, you shouldn't be scared'
Robert Marawa slammed the SABC for the public broadcaster's apparent lack of support to on-air talent.

"Unfortunately there, the more you succeed, and the more you bring in the numbers, the more people fall in love with your work, the more the people that are running the show - the administrators - and some of the ones who made this decision are in acting positions, imagine taking such a drastic decision from someone who is in an acting position," said Robert Marawa.

"When it comes to support, it's funny how when you get to a level of excellence in what you do, then the people around you tend not to support you," he said.

"The reason why I speak openly about this and I don't really fear anybody about this, is because it's the public broadcaster. It belong to the public. So when they go for bail-outs after they've chowed the money ... it's your money as a public broadcaster".

"When people are doing wrong, you shouldn't be scared," said Robert Marawa. "A lot of people are unhappy there [at the SABC] but they'll keep quiet".

"I stand my ground because you can't fear anybody. Rather starve in dignity than eat in shame."

SABC viewership plunges to 'the lowest on record' - TV audience down to 45% while DStv grows; SABC radio listenership marks 'significant declines'.

The SABC's TV viewership keeps plunging and has now dropped to a disastrous 45% audience share - its "lowest on record" - while SABC radio station listenership also nosedived following the badly implemented 90% local content decree of its controversial former chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

While the viewership of SABC2 and SABC3 have been tanking over several months since mid-2016, even the stalwart SABC1 is now being affected and its viewership sliding, with overall SABC TV audiences that have slipped to just 45% in the last quarter.

The SABC's falling viewership and radio listenership comes in the wake of the disastrous implementation of Hlaudi Motsoeneng's 90% local content decree in June 2016 that's drained the public broadcaster's production coffers and saw viewers and listeners, and then also advertisers flee.

According to the SABC's latest group operations business review document of 22 March, the SABC's plummeting TV audience share has now hit "the lowest on record".

Business Day on Friday first reported about the latest business review document.

The SABC's ongoing audiences losses is however MultiChoice's gain, with the SABC ironically supplying TV channels like SABC News and SABC Encore to DStv.

The SABC's internal research notes that while SABC audience share fell to its lowest level ever in the last quarter, that MultiChoice's audience share for DStv has climbed from 25% to 28% - "its highest on record".

Meanwhile the SABC keeps revising its TV audience share target downwards, but the 45% is even lower than the downgraded 51% it wants to try and meet.

It's not just the SABC's three terrestrial TV channels that's struggling - the SABC's radio stations are hemorrhaging as well.

The SABC's predominantly English language radio stations - Metro FM, Good Hope FM and even Radio 2000 - saw "significant declines" since mid-2016 when Hlaudi Motsoeneng's abrupt content policy change was enforced.

In the 9 months since the change the SABC hasn't done any qualitative market research, with the report now suggesting that "qualitative research needs to be executed across different radio stations to test the effects of the 90% local music implementation".

SABC radio listeners from RSG to Lotus FM and Lesedi FM have been vocal in their dislike of how language and culture specific radio stations have been forced to play music falling outside of the market demographic of the consumers that specific SABC radio stations are supposed to be catering for.

The SABC's radio audience in the last quarter is now down to 71% according to the business review document.

On Thursday angry and fearful SABC staffers openly slammed SABC management as "inept and ignorant", asking executives point blank "if there's money" as the SABC's cash reserves are plummeting with another financial crisis looming for the broadcaster.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago on Friday didn't immediately respond to a media enquiry seeking comment about the first quarter audience share reports.

Broadcasting regulator slaps SABC radio stations with thousands of rands in fines for breaking election broadcasting regulations.

South Africa's broadcasting regulator has fined several SABC radio stations with thousands of rands over non-compliance and for breaking the election broadcasting regulations.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) fined several of the struggling public broadcasters's radio stations with fines with stations that will also have to broadcast apologies daily to listeners.

Icasa found that the SABC's radio stations failed to adhere to the municipal elections regulations during the election broadcast period.

The SABC's Afrikaans radio station RSG is fined R50 000 (of which R35 000 is suspended for three years).

Metro FM has been fined R5 000 with an apology to be broadcast once a day for five consecutive days.

Ligwalagwala FM has been fined R5 000 and must broadcast an apology once a day for five consecutive days.

Good Hope FM also erred but the radio station was not found negligent. Ukhozi FM was fined R5 000 and ordered to broadcast an apology once a day for five consecutive days.

Meanwhile the SABC has so far failed to provide Icasa with any undertaking that it has changed its policy of censoring scenes of property destruction in its TV news coverage, risking its broadcasting licence.                                                               

SABC1, SABC radio stations doing the Walk for Freedom on Youth Day, 16 June; youth concert set for Kabokweni Stadium in Mpumalanga.

SABC1 and some of the SABC's radio stations will go big for Youth Day on 16 June, this year doing an SABC Walk for Freedom next Tuesday under the theme of "Take The Next Step".

The Metro FM Walk for Freedom will start at the Morris Isaacson High School in Mphuthi Street to the Phefeni Senior Secondary School in Vilakazi Street, Soweto at 08:00 on Youth Day.

The Walk for Freedom in Limpopo will start at the Peter Mokaba Alma Mater School to the University of Limpopo's stadium.

In Mpumalanga the Walk for Freedom will start at the Kabokweni Stadium at 06:30 with SABC1 and the SABC radio stations Ligwalagwala FM and Ikwekwezi FM that will have a music concert after the walk where DJ's Kwesta, Heavy K, Bricks, Spectacular and Naves will perform.

SABC1 will be covering the event here from the SABC marquee for several of the SABC1 youth magazine shows.

MultiChoice adds 18 SABC radio channels to DStv's audio package, several regional SABC radio stations available nationally for the first time.

MultiChoice today added 18 of the SABC's radio stations to DStv's audio package which makes these several of these regional radio stations available nationally across South Africa for the first time.

The SABC radio stations, ranging from 5FM, SAfm, Ukhozi Fm, Umhlobo Wenene, Lesedi FM, Lotus FM and Good Hope FM will now be accessible to DStv Premium, DStv Extra, DStv Compact, DStv Family, DStv Access and DStv EasyView subscribers.

The full list of SABC radio stations and their channel numbers added to DStv are:
Metro FM (901)
Channel Africa (902)
Good Hope FM (903)
Ikwekwezi (904)
5FM (905)
Lesedi FM (906)
Ligwalagwala (907)
Lotus FM (908)
Motsweding FM (909)
Munghana Lonene FM (910)
Phalaphala FM (911)
Radio 2000 (912)
RSG (913)
SAfm (914)
Thobela FM (915)
Tru FM (916)
Ukhozi FM (917)
Umhlobo Wenene FM (918)
X-K FM (919)