BREAKING. DJ Warras (40) murdered in Johannesburg

by Thinus Ferreira

Warrick Stock - the South African radio and club DJ and TV presenter, VIP protection service owner and podcaster known as DJ Warras - was shot and murdered on Tuesday afternoon in Johannesburg. He was 40.

Stock, a former 5FM and Cliff Central producer, and also known as Shady Lurker, was shot and killed on Tuesday afternoon on the corner of Von Wielligh and Commissioner Street in Johannesburg in front of the Carlton Centre.

According to Xolani Fihla, superintendent of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), "a shooting incident that happened this afternoon in the Johannesburg CBD".

"JMPD officers were first respondents to the incident when they were stopped by members of public who alerted them to the shooting."

"Currently, as a JMPD we don't have any information regarding the incident or the victim. And the matter will be criminally investigated by the South African Police Service, who will then shed better information regarding the incident."

The area was cordoned off by yellow police tape as Warrick Stock's lifeless body lay on the scene close to an alleged hijacked building.

According to the police, DJ Warras was approached by three suspects who opened fire on him, shot him dead and then fled.

On social media, Stock's friend and businessman Rob Hersov said his friend was murdered.

"He was murdered today in Johannesburg. I just want to say he is the most loving, compassionate, friendly, honest, open, decent human being, and it is a tragedy beyond belief. Warras, we love you, we miss you, may you rest in peace, brother."

Days ago, DJ Warras - who is also the owner of JT VIP: Elite Guarding & VIP Protection Services, a security company that handles VIP protection and building protection - criticised Rachel Kolisi's upcoming documentary film, Falling forward, claiming that the ex of South African Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi was trying to cash in on the breakdown of their marriage.

"I find this woman insufferable, bro, we get it - you got divorced! Sorry! But now it's become her whole identity, she just wants everyone to feel sorry for how heartbroken she is," he noted.

"F- sakes, what happened to keeping quiet and fading into the background? Dealing with the matter privately and putting on a brave face in public, because you have children, woman!" DJ Warras said.

Warrick Stock, who was born in Durban, never knew his father and was raised by his grandparents and mother, moved to Johannesburg as a teenager.

Stock started working at the Yfm radio station in 2008 where he did various shifts, after which he moved to the SABC's 5FM radio station as a DJ.

In September 2012, after also playing the club DJ circuit, DJ Warras made the jump to television as the new co-host together with Luthando Shosha of SABC1's music magazine show Live AMP from the 14th season.

Four years later in 2016, Warrick Stock who is a dad of three sons, became one of the presenters of the lifestyle magazine series The Man Cave on SABC3 for that show's 5th, 6th and 7th seasons.

In March 2024 DJ Warras started The Shady PHodcast on The Real Network with Phind'Gcobe "DJ PH" Madubela.

In October 2025, DJ Warras started as the presenter of the new reality show Ngicel'iVisa on MultiChoice and M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel, noting that it "wasn't trash TV".

"We've done our research and the show is in line with what DStv subscribers actually want to see. What's happening on Ngicel'iVisa could easily happen to you or me - it's real life!"

Coincidentally, the new episode 11 out of 13 of Ngicel'iVisa will air tonight at 20:00 on Mzansi Magic. 

TVwithThinus asked Mzansi Magic for comment on the death of DJ Warras on Tuesday afternoon and whether the season of Ngicel'iVisa completed filming with Warras as presenter.

Shirley Adonisi, director of local entertainment channels at M-Net, said "It is with sadness that we, as Mzansi Magic, extend our deepest and heartfelt condolences on the passing of the talented and charismatic Warrick Stock better known as DJ Warras".

"DJ Warras was a vibrant member of our Mzansi Magic family, currently hosting our reality show, Ngicel’ iVisa."

"His natural ability to mediate sometimes complex human emotions with wit and sincerity, made him the perfect host for the show. His contribution to our sister channel, Channel O (DStv 320) was also instrumental in helping shape Mzansi’s urban music landscape and his on-screen presence was testament to his legacy in the local entertainment industry."

"DJ Warras was more than just a face of a reality series, he was a talented storyteller, a passionate music lover and a warm soul who brought joy and energy to every moment on screen."

"His dedication to creativity left an indelible mark on our channels. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his friends, family and all who knew and loved him. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time."

A decade ago, DJ Warras told Move!-magazine "I passed matric with three A's and B's through the guidance of my grandparents, whom I stayed with".

"My grandfather insisted I educate myself so that I could be able to do everything for myself. I really looked up to him and that's why I am the person I am today. I turned out to be responsible and it's all because of the people who raised me, and for that I am forever grateful."

DJ Warras said that being a father made him more cautious since his sons "are my life".

"Being a father has taught me to be more responsible and cautious. Even though I am no longer with the mother of one of my sons, we are doing a great job in taking care of our child."

The men's lifestyle magazine show The Man Cave from Cheeky Media switches to M-Net for a new season, adds Jonathan Boyton-Lee as presenter: 'The cool thing is that it's a lot freer than other shows'.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African lifestyle magazine show The Man Cave is making a return to television and is shifting from SABC3 to M-Net (DStv 101) on Saturdays at 21:30, starting tonight on 20 February and adding Jonathan Boynton-Lee as one of the presenters.

The lifestyle magazine show catering to a male South African audience, although women can watch too, has an initial 10-episode order. The show is still produced, like before, by Cheeky Media but this time for M-Net.

The presenters are Siv Ngesi, comedian Jason Goliath and the radio jock and petrol-head Warrick Stock who have all been involved with The Man Cave before, with the former Top Billing presenter, Jonathan Boynton-Lee who has also made inroads as a producer and actor the past few years, joining The Man Cave from this season as one of the presenters.

M-Net says that The Man Cave will entertain "with its action-packed line-up of competitive challenges, adventures, casual conversations, engagements with local heroes and sporting stars, bucket-list adventures, supercars and classic rides".

In the new season, The Man Cave presenters will also look at specific societal issues, explore South Africa and its people, discover "the mythical bond" between man and machine, and also host casual, non-scripted conversations with top South African personalities.

Speaking about how his involvement with the new season of The Man Cave came about, Jonathan Boynton-Lee tells TVwithThinus that "with a lot of the presenters on the show I do a lot of shooting with - Siv Ngesi is one of them - we do a lot of content creation together, and we've done a lot of shows together".

"The executive producer Yusuf Stevens is also a partner of mine in production, so we've been trying to put it together for quite a while, and I've been a guest on the show before. This season they've approached me and asked me to be part of the show".

Being back on-screen and presenting within the television magazine format, Jonathan Boynton-Lee says that "every show is different - even magazine shows - they've all got different kinds of styles. Even reality TV we know is scripted a little bit where you can play a bit of a character but you can also be yourself".

"I think that the cool thing about The Man Cave is that it's a lot freer than other shows."

"What you see is what you get. We're all having a good jol on TV and we're just enjoying ourselves and being ourselves as well. I find with The Man Cave it's much less scripted. There's pretty much no script and we just go with it - which I love. The immediacy of it is really, really cool and makes for good television".

As to who gets to do what inserts, who tackles which topics or who does certain profile interviews, Jonathan Boynton-Lee says that "obviously it's a lot to do with availability because a lot of us are busy with several other projects, so availability is a big thing".

"It's also always nice to co-present because you work off of the energy of other presenters and we all got such different energies that all work together, so it's lovely to always present with someone else."

"It's normally got to do with availability and also the suitability of the insert. Jason Goliath is really good with interviews and he does all of the celebrity interviews in The Man Cave."

"Siv and I are very competitive, so all the sporting stuff and competing against each other and adventure stuff we do that, and Warras also has got his own strengths - we all got our own strengths that we pair with the different inserts."

"Obviously we also do a lot of things together, like tonight's debut episode of The Man Cave on M-Net will be all of us together competing on a Survivor type challenge with Survivor SA host Nico Panagio."

Besides his on-screen presenting and acting work in TV and film, Jonathan Boynton-Lee is also a producer and has likewise been impacted by the continuing Covid-19 global pandemic that has caused havoc in South Africa's TV and film industry.

"The impact has been massive. All the big productions came to a grinding halt in the beginning. I've been on a lot of sets that have been shut down because someone came had come into contact with someone who was Covid-positive and then the whole production has to shut down."

"Also obviously the whole way we shoot things now is very different, with masks and social distancing and other protocols."

"It's a very difficult adjustment but it's something you have to get used to. I'm not a fan of the online space but I appreciate the online space - Zoom and all of that stuff - but nothing beats the collaborative effort of filmmaking and doing it with crews and casts in the flesh."

"So Covid's had a huge impact - especially the performance industry - performers are really struggling," he says.

Earlier this month Jonathan Boynton-Lee and Siv Ngesi headed to KwaZulu-Natal for a 2-day trip hostel by the province's tourism promotion body to show how visitors can travel and enjoy the sights and sounds of the province safely amidst the pandemic.

"That was the first kind of proper - it wasn't so much a holiday because we were actually doing work promoting KZN Tourism - and we're working on a travel show with them which we're going to be doing as well because we love KwaZulu-Natal as a destination," Jonathan says.

"And in regards to travelling during Covid-19 it was almost like being back to normal. You know, people wear their masks, they use sanitiser, wash their hands, and keep their distance."

"We weren't in very crowded places - the beaches are quite empty and the hotels are very, very good with following protocol, so it almost felt as if everything's back to normal, which is very cool".

About his production company Half Man Half Amazing Productions, Jonathan Boynton-Lee says that one of the challenges has been that he and Siv Ngesi have been so busy working on other productions that they haven't had as much time as they would want to have to focus on producing their own content yet.

"You know, we always get swept up in other people's shows! So it's a time thing," he says.

"We've got a movie in the works that we're developing and that's really exciting - a big, 'Tarantino dark comedy'-inspired type of film."

"Then we've got the travel show with KZN Tourism that we're working on, and then another show that revolves around fulfilling people's dreams - their bucket lists - so we have several exciting stuff in the works and we need to pick the right project to launch with," Jonathan says.

A new season of The Man Cave starts on M-Net (DStv 101), Saturday 20 February 2021 at 21:30.

SHOCKER. SABC3 entire new local content slate a TV ratings flop; ratings collapse in July as not a single new local programme finds favour with viewers.

The SABC's disastrous move to suddenly dump international content and flush the SABC3 schedule with cheap and badly produced local content from July has seen SABC3's ratings collapse, with viewership for all the new shows so low that not a single one of the new programmes managed to even make last month's top 20 most watched shows.

After an abrupt order for his plan of 90% local television by the SABC's controversial chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng that was hastily implemented in July, the plunging ratings for SABC3 spells disaster for August and beyond since some foreign films and the weekday soap Days of Our Lives that were still shown in July, largely propped up the SABC3 schedule for July.


ALSO READ: Viewership plunge for SABC shows in July after schedule moves; SABC2's 7de Laan sheds hundreds of thousands.


Not a single one of the flurry of new local shows on SABC3 rushed to production managed to become a viewership hit, nor got enough viewers to rate anywhere close to the top 20 most watched programmes on the channel in July.

Despite collectively costing the SABC a lot of money to produce, all the new local SABC3 shows are viewership flops according to South Africa's TAMS TV ratings.

With too low viewership to make the top 20, the local SABC3 TV flops range from the panned Divas of Jozi (replacing Survivor), Top Chef South Africa, The Sober Companion, Fun-Natix and Frontier Vets, to the new local weekday talk shows like Anele Mdoda's Real Talk, Jason Goliath's Larger Than Life and the panel talk show Trending.

Also viewership failures are Siv Ngesi's Jou Ma se Chef and the new weekend edition of Expresso.

The Janez Vermeiren produced The Man Cave eaked out a barely-there 20th spot in the ratings for July with a lowly 597 635 viewers (a 1.8 AR) - but that was for the last time it was broadcast in its Sunday evening slot before again being shunted yet again for a third time to its new timeslot on Friday nights where it doesn't rate at all.

Shockingly, existing local shows on SABC3 like the telenovela High Rollers that's meant to prop up the weekday schedule that ranked 10th in June, completely dropped out of the top 20.

The fact that not one of the new SABC3 local shows rate - meaning that very few viewers are watching these - means that the troubled SABC3 must adjust advertising rates for timeslots down due to the fewer viewers it's getting. That means less income.

By having replaced popular shows with local shows that has lower production values, higher income TV households - those that advertisers want to reach - have fled SABC3.

It also means that SABC3's overall ratings - it's combined audience figures for August - will be lower, a problem for SABC3 that is already struggling in the viewership race as the SABC's only commercial TV channel.

When the top 20 programmes list, now made up out of less of the more-watched international content, consists out of more lower-rated local shows that people don't want to see, it means that SABC3's combined viewership tally will be lower in August.

In early July ad agencies warned the SABC that the public broadcaster is going to experience huge losses in terms of advertising revenue if the sudden new slate of programmes don't manage to lure viewers and rate.

The American soap The Bold and the Beautiful - the type of content that Hlaudi Motsoeneng said the SABC will dump - is still by far the most watched programme on SABC3, number one in the channel's ratings in July with 1.55 million viewers (4.6 AR / 16.9 share).

It's followed by the Chinese science fiction comedy film, CJ7 in second place with 1.2 million viewers (3.6 AR / 12.2 share) and then the weekday local soap Isidingo remaining in 3rd place with 1.17 million viewers (3.5 AR / 10.1 share).

While Hlaudi Motsoeneng in June and again in July said that viewers don't watch Days of Our Lives, it remained a perennial solid performer in July for SABC until it was yanked from the schedule, with 1.07 million viewers in 7th place (3.2 AR / 17 share).

International movies in July helped to prop up the SABC3 schedule with Jinxed, A Knight's Tale, Click, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Spanglish and Fired Up taking six places out of the top 20 most watched content on the channel above any of the new local shows.

One better performer on the SABC3 schedule after moved to a later afternoon timeslot from July was Afternoon Express, now ranking 13th and managing a place in the top 20 for the first time.

Here is the list of top 20 highest-rated programmes on SABC3 in July:

1.The Bold and the Beautiful   1.55 million       4.6 AR
2.CJ7                                        1.2 million         3.6 AR
3.Isidingo                                 1.17 million       3.5 AR
4.Jinxed                                    1.14 million       3.4 AR
5.Filler: Winter on Air              1.145 million    3.4 AR
6.Gourmet                                 1.142 million    3.3 AR
7.Days of Our Lives                 1.078 million     3.2 AR      
8.Places to Be                           1.071 million     3.2 AR
9.Places to Be (repeat)              976 406             2.9 AR
10.English news                        876 992             2.6 AR
11.Wildest Africa                      827 848            2.5 AR
12.A Knight's Tale                    820 983             2.4 AR
13.Afternoon Express               731 290             2.2 AR
14.Click                                     679 119             2 AR
15.The Sorcerer's Apprentice    675 510            2 AR
16.Spanglish                              633 039            1.9 AR
17.Top Billing                           621 536             1.8 AR
18.Fired Up                               612 356             1,8 AR
19.Filler                                     604 805            1.8 AR
20.The Man Cave                      597635             1.8 AR


ALSO READ: Viewership plunge for SABC shows in July after schedule moves; SABC2's 7de Laan sheds hundreds of thousands.

The Man Cave with Janez Vermeiren and Lunga Shabalala returns to SABC3 for a 4th season from 10 April on Sundays at 18:00.

The local magazine show The Man Cave is returning to SABC3 on 10 April in the new timeslot of Sundays at 18:00 as part of SABC3's new weekend timeslot targeting male viewers.

The new 4th season will include presenters Janez Vermeiren, Lunga Shabalala and Siv Ngesi taking a trip to Vietnam and Bangkok.

In a press release, The Man Cave says the three will move into a "sleek and stylish multi-million rand Man Cave all of their own" - presumably at insurance magnate Douw Steyn's Steyn City alluded to in the new season's publicity images.

"Don't be fooled though, there will be plenty of manly challenges along the way," says the show, "like getting their combat on in the quest to gain their Muay Thai certificates and indulging in fine Eastern delicacies" like  bats, scorpions and snakes.

The Man Cave says "the new season promises a suave, more refined experience but with the same healthy dose of adrenaline viewers have come to expect from the boys".