Zola Yeye, the SABC's provincial general manager in the Eastern Cape and former Springbok rugby player, retires after 24 years with the SABC.

Zola Yeye, the SABC's provincial general manager for the Eastern Cape has retired after 24 years with the public broadcaster.

Zola Yeye retired at the end of September after he started his career in December 1991 with the SABC.

Zola Yeye joined the SABC in 1991 first as a journalist and then moving on to national assignment editor at the SABC's news division in Johannesburg.

He then became the regional news editor for TV and radio in the Eastern Cape at the SABC, after which he was appointed as the executive producer of News Hour.

In 2003 Zola Yeye was appointed general manager for the Eastern Cape province at the SABC, a position he held for 12 years.

Zola Yeye was a former South African international rugby player who also for a period served as Springbok team manager.

"Zola Yeye will be remembered for his immense contribution to the success of the SABC," says Sully Motsweni, SABC corporate affairs executive.

"His retirement is a great loss to us but a well-deserved respite for him," says Sully Motsweni.

BREAKING. 'We as the SABC have failed and disappointed you,' says the SABC's Eastern Cape regional boss, Zola Yeye.

"We as the SABC have failed and disappointed you," the SABC's regional Eastern Cape boss Zola Yeye told a crowd of 500 people at Tholeni village near Butterworth in the Eastern Cape province.

Zola Yeye, the SABC's provincial manager told residents that the SABC had failed in adequately broadcasting news and information about the spate of serial murders in the area where 19 people have been killed since 2007.

Zola Yeye said the SABC, like any other public broadcaster, should have reported and thoroughly investigated the killings of woman and children in the village.

Zola Yeye told the Tholeni village that the SABC failed to properly cover the news in the area: "we let our guard down and left everything to the police - the very same police who cannot attend to crime scenes due to the unavailability of police vans".