2015 MTV Africa Music Awards set for 18 July in Durban - is Comedy Central's Trevor Noah going to be the 2015 MAMAs' host?

The 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards, or 2015 MAMAs, will take place on 18 July and again in Durban like last year - adding a new Artist of the Decade category as industry buzz is steadily building that possibly Trevor Noah of sister channel Comedy Central Africa could be the host.

While Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) - which runs both MTV Base (DStv 322) as well as sister channel Comedy Central Africa (DStv 122) and MTV (DStv 130) among its channel set on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform - has made no announcement yet on who will be hosting the 2015 MAMAs, South African TV and music insiders are pointing to Trevor Noah as the perfect front runner to host.

Trevor Noah is set to take over The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, broadcast on Comedy Central Africa on 28 September and since the 31-year old is from South Africa, getting him to host the 2015 MAMAs would be a great synergy coup for Viacom, VIMN and VIMN Africa.

Not only is the theme of the 2015 MAMAs "Evolution" - something playing perfectly into Trevor Noah's professional career transition to Comedy Central - but hosting the 5th edition of the African music awards show will put him in front of million of viewers on MTV Base in an unrivaled marketing opportunity shortly before VIMN Africa will want viewers to tune in regularly to Comedy Central from September.

It will presumably also be slightly easier for VIMN Africa to acquire Trevor Noah's buy-in for the 2015 MAMAs hosting gig since as talent he's already inside the Viacom corporate fold.

The 2015 MAMAs is adding a new "special" category, Artist of the Decade, when it takes place on Mandela Day on 18 July at the Durban International Convention Centre, since VIMN Africa is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a regional offshoot from Viacom International Media Networks.

The Artist of the Decade category will recognise artists whose careers have flourished throughout the last 10 years. Other additional categories in the 17 category line-up include the MAMA Leadership Award and Personality of the Year. Nominations for the awards will be revealed on 11 June.

Alex Okosi, the senior vice president and managing director for VIMN Africa, says the 2015 MAMAs will once again be an "inspirational celebration of African achievement and creativity that showcases Africa's best talent on the world stage" - another hint that Trevor Noah who exemplifies what he's talking about, might end up as the host on the MAMAs stage.

The 2015 MAMAs will be broadcast live on MTV Base and MTV (DStv 130) on Saturday 18 July as well as on VIMN partner channels elsewhere around the world.

The 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards categories are:
1. Best Male
2. Best Female
3. Best Group
4. Best New Act
5. Best Live Act
6. Best Collaboration
7. Best Hip Hop
8. Best Alternative
9. Best Francophone
10. Best Lusophone
11. Best International
12. Video of the Year
13. Artist of the Year
14. Artist of the Decade
15. Song of the Year
16. Personality of the Year
17. MTV Base Leadership Award

BREAKING. eNCA shutting down its Beijing bureau; shunting longtime Asia correspondent John Bailey back to Johannesburg.

You're reading it here first.

I can report that eNCA (DStv 403) is shutting down its Beijing news bureau and shunting its longtime Asia correspondent John Bailey back to Johannesburg.

The shocking Beijing closure forms part of the South African 24-hour TV news channel's ongoing and dramatic international retraction of reporters who were stationed on the ground outside of South Africa's borders.

The baffling Beijing closure ties in to the ongoing and painful shuttering of the Sabido-owned news outfit's offices and news bureaux across the African continent, with the dramatic downsizing which has resulted in retrenchments since April and saw correspondents and on-air talent leave.

While eNCA warned in March that it is leaving Africa because that part of its news service has become unsustainable and that it will cover the rest of the continent with wire news and freelance reporters where big stories warrant it, nothing was said about its other news bureaux like London and Beijing - where the axe is now coming down.

eNCA insiders are scared and upset about the moves caused by budget constraints and fear the "dumbing-down" of the South African 24-hour TV news channel provided to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform and which will celebrate its 7th anniversary next month since it launched in June 2008.

While eNCA's China bureau chief John Bailey is for instance forced to return home, insiders point to eNCA apparently working on a new showbiz programme to be introduced soon to try and lift ratings, presented by Tanya Nefdt and Amy MacIver with Sally Burdett as producer. eNCA has not yet responded to a media enquiry asking about this development.

South African TV news channel rivals already pad their schedules with entertainment shows like ANN7 (DStv 405) with Star Biz and Sizzle and SABC News (DStv 404) with Afro Showbiz News.

In response to a media enquiry eNCA confirms its shutting down its Beijing bureau, saying John Bailey will be returning to South Africa and continue working for eNCA in the Johannesburg office.

"The closing of the Beijing bureau formed part of the reationalisation of the Africa division and will close at the end of June. eNCA will continue to cover China and the region through freelance reporters in the area," says eNCA.

BREAKING. Another SABC3 schedule shake-up: channel rejigs primetime yet again from June as High Rollers is turned into a telenovela.

Yet another dramatic schedule shake-up is coming to the SABC's problem child channel, SABC3, to try and boost ratings for the public broadcaster's only commercial TV channel.

From June programming currently seen at 19:30 is moving half an hour later, while shows like stalwart Top Billing moves earlier. The former hour long drama High Rollers is also returning but is now being turned into a three day a week telenovela at 19:30, with half hour episodes set for Mondays to Wednesdays from 29 June.

SABC3's ratings has remained under pressure and several dramatic schedule changes the past two years have failed to move the viewership needle significantly.

June will see an influx of several new shows on SABC3 - the 8th season of Strictly Come Dancing South Africa, a 2nd season of the comedy Those Who Can't and a new season of the reality show Charly's Cake Angels.

The Cape Town based reality show produced by Cooked in Africa and set in the famous Charly's Bakery saw a first season in a bad afternoon timeslot after which a second season was shown on DStv's Food Network.

Charly's Cake Angels, which got critical praise, has been added back to the schedule and will now be moved to primetime at 21:00 on SABC3 from 18 June for a new season.

Meanwhile American dramas currently at 19:30 will move to 20:30 like the Monday comedies and series like Common Law, The Good Wife and Hostages.

The 21st season of The Amazing Race will start on SABC3 on 6 July at 20:30.

The 8th season of Strictly Come Dancing SA, produced by Rapid Blue, will start on 5 June at 19:30. The dance reality format show will no longer have an additional eviction show on Saturdays but will now eliminate contestants on the Friday programme to try and lift ratings, keep social media abuzz and viewers tuned in for longer as event television.

From 18 June the Tswelopele Productions produced Top Billing which has weathered many channel and timeslot changes over decades is moving yet again (God bless) to 19:30.

It will be followed by the second season of Man Cave, the Janez Vermeiren produced Cheeky Media magazine show geared towards a young male audience and which will see comedian Siv Ngesi joining the existing Lunga Shabalala and Janez Vermeiren as presenters.

The gambling drama High Rollers is turned into a telenovela as SABC3 jumps on the Uzalo, Ashes to Ashes and Isibaya local telenovela bandwagon.

The former hour long drama will be broadcast three times a week at 19:30 and cut down to half hour episodes like a soapie, revolving around three "brothers" - casino kingpin David, his flawed older brother Paul, and David's right-hand man Thato Mogale.

High Rollers will get a mid-morning repeat on SABC3 at 10:30

The local comedy set in the staff room of an elite private school, Those Who Can't will return for a second season on 29 June at 20:00.

While a woman would have been added to SABC3's recently launched new weekday afternoon variety magazine and talk show Afternoon Express which got a lukewarm reception from viewers and critics, it now looks as if one of the male contestants of the Presenter Search on 3 will be added to the trio of Bonang Matheba, Jeannie D and Bonnie Mbuli to try and lift ratings.

Two other contestants of the Presenter Search on 3 will join SABC3's breakfast show Expresso and Top Billing respectively.

MultiChoice's DStv Explora named 2015 Satellite Television Product of the Year in South Africa.

MultiChoice's DStv Explora decoder manufactured by Pace has been named the 2015 Satellite Television Product of the Year in South Africa.

It's the second big accolade for the latest MultiChoice PVR, which was also named as one of the 12 most beautiful objects in South Africa in 2015 a few months ago at the Design Indaba.

The DStv Explora, nicknamed "the pebble" by MultiChoice insiders for the sleeker design of the latest PVR version, is manufactured by Pace in South Africa.

Designed to try and bridge the gap and bring DStv subscribers a seamless video-on-demand (VOD) service by using satellite due to the limited availability of broadband services which are also slow and expensive in South Africa and across the rest of the African continent, the DStv Explora can record up to 220 hours or programming and gives users access to MultiChoice's DStv BoxOffice and DStv Catch Up services.

Now the DStv Explora has been named the 2015 Satellite Television Product of the Year after Nielsen surveyed over 5 000 South African households when researching candidates for the product of the year award.

Product of the Year is recognised in 28 countries globally and MultiChoice now gets the right to immediately brand its DStv Explora with a "Product of the Year" seal for a year.

"The DStv Explora is our flagship PVR decoder - we're very proud of the product that our teams developed," MultiChoice tells TV with Thinus.

"This is the first DStv decoder that was developed internally by our teams in Broadcast Technology and is entirely manufactured in South Africa. So its truly a South African product."

"Not only is it a great product but it also gives our customers a far superior viewing experience - with an expanded Catch Up and BoxOffice catalogue, a very user-friendly interface, the ability to connect to the internet to remote record and download even more content from our Catch Up catalogue," says MultiChoice.

"Pace is extremely proud to have been selected by MultiChoice to help develop this ground-breaking product, and ultimately enhance the viewing experience of their customers," says Jim Henderson, the president of Pace International.

"Recognition as a key contributor to this award-winning product is a true testament to the strength and longevity of our partnerships in the region."

"With this product, the Pace team has proven that they are fully committed to quality and excellence, while addressing the real needs of the Sub-Saharan marketplace," says Phil Nicholson, the general manager of consumer devices in broadcast technology. "Well done to the teams at Pace and MultiChoice who pulled out all the stops to bring this awesome product to market."

The DStv Explora is the first Pace product to be fully manufactured in South Africa at the Vektronix manufacturing plant in East London, South Africa.  Pace has been supplying DStv decoders to MultiChoice since the launch of DStv in 1995.

SABC lying over having Bafana Bafana TV broadcasting rights say Siyaya TV and SAFA; Siyaya TV says its actually busy negotiating with e.tv.

The SABC is lying over claims to have secured Bafana Bafana TV rights to show any national team soccer games on television and no valid contract with the SABC exists, pay-TV operator Siyaya TV and SAFA say.

In a joint statement, the South African Football Association (SAFA) and Siyaya TV, the new pay-TV consortium, said the SABC is lying.

It comes after the public broadcaster's famously matricless and highly controversial chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng on Wednesday said the SABC and SAFA have reached a 3-year agreement over the broadcasting rights to show all local Bafana Bafana games, Banyana Banyana, as well as the men's under-20 and under-23 games.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng went on SABC2's Morning Live on Wednesday to announce the deal - which Siyaya TV and SAFA say doesn't exist.

Siyaya TV which got its pay-TV licence from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) in November 2014, now threatens to sue the SABC if for instance the Banyana 2016 Olympic qualifying game on Sunday against Gabon is broadcast.

Siyaya TV owns the rights to all of the national soccer games after the consortium last year signed a R1 billion contract with SAFA in a 6-year deal and says it's actually busy negotiating with Sabido's free-to-air commercial TV channel e.tv to show the national soccer games.

After Hlaudi Motsoeneng bragged on Morning Live over securing the rights, the SABC also issued a press statement in which it said the SABC's agreement to show Bafana and other national team games will run from 2015 to 2017, with the SABC giving soccer-loving South Africans "an opportunity to see their national teams in action".

"The SABC will continue to prioritize sports of national importance," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng, while the SABC statement also included a quote from SAFA CEO, Dennis Mumble, saying "We value the loyal audience that the SABC has always delivered to our national teams and have agreed to partner with the SABC to strenghten that bons with our supporters. We thank the SABC for ensuring the South African public enjoys the national teams on live television and radio".

In a joint statement from SAFA and Siyaya TV, the two organisations say "SAFA wishes to place on record that Siyaya TV is and will remain a long-term strategic broadcast partner of SAFA. We emphatically reject any speculation or statements to the contrary."

"The partnership between the two parties [SAFA and Siyaya TV] has enabled SAFA to take its broadcast platform to an entirely new level, which will now enable soccer-loving fans greater access to the beautiful game".

In another separate statement Siyaya TV's founder Aubrey Tau launched a scathing attack on the SABC and Hlaudi Motsoeneng's claims, saying the public broadcaster is lying over having any broadcasting rights.

"The SABC does not hold any of the broadcasting rights to Bafana matches, and therefore cannot claim otherwise. Any position taken by the SABC that it holds the Bafana Bafana broadcast rights is false and misleading," says Siyaya TV.

"Siyaya TV is the sole and exclusive owner of these rights, in terms of its signed contract with SAFA".

Aubrey Tau says Siyaya TV approached the SABC two months ago in order to discuss the granting of free-to-air broadcasting rights to the SABC, but that Siyaya TV was "summarily rejected by the SABC who refused to deal with Siyaya TV on the matter".

"Siyaya TV has since not heard directly from the SABC, but has in the meantime been in talks with SAFA regarding the possible granting of free-to-air broadcast rights to the SABC, and is at the same time also engaged with e.tv in similar discussions".

"Siyaya TV has made no commitments to and signed no contracts with any other broadcasters regarding the soccer broadcasting rights, and remains the sole and exclusive owner of these rights at this point in time," says Aubrey Tau.

SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng slams South African journalism over bad stories and 'propaganda'; says 'sometimes you need a brain'.

At the launch event of the expansion of the SABC News channel's footprint into the rest of Africa the SABC's chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng has again took to the podium to slam South African journalism and journalists, threatened that dissenting and disloyal SABC workers will be rooted out, saying that the SABC is doing very well and that the SABC is committed to "positive stories".

As guests drank champagne while the wine flowed at the gold-plated launch event, the controversial Hlaudi Motsoeneng once again berated, bemoaned South African journalists and he said are misleading the country, and said the SABC isn't going to report "propaganda about negative stories".

The SABC was celebrating the expansion of the footprint of the public broadcaster's 24-hour TV news channel SABC News (DStv 404) into the rest of Africa.

SABc News was launched in August 2013 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform as part of a controversial two channel deal and the SABC's second try at a 24-hour news channel since its first version, SABC News International, folded in March 2010 after three years and a loss of millions of rands.

The SABC's launch event held at Midrand in Johannesburg where the SABC choir sang, was attended by president Jacob Zuma, who was flanked at table 1 by minister of communications, Faith Muthambi and Hlaudi Motsoeneng - all three of whom kept leaning in and chatting excitedly with each other all through the hour and a half long long event.

Other guests spotted included president of the Pan African parliament, Bethel Amadi; acting SABC board chairperson, Prof Mbulaheni Maghuve; the SABC's head of news Jimi Matthews; Veronah Duwarkah, the SABC's group executive in charge of television; Sophie Mokoena, SABC News' foreign news editor, and the few SABC board members who are left following the communication minister's purge of the board earlier this year.

Two weeks after a bizarre speech at the launch of the SABC's rerun channel SABC Encore (DStv 156) on DStv, Hlaudi Motsoeneng once again ran to the podium to deliver another eyebrow-raising speech.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng is currently embroiled in a lengthy court battle after the high court already twice ordered that he be suspended. He is appealing the judgment again.

"SABC, we are different from other media house," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "When we report about the news, we are not apologetic about positive stories."

Then, as he did last year, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, again slammed South African journalism with generalisations.

"Our own journalists, they deal with propaganda. When you go abroad, most journalists they don't write bad about their country. But when you come to South Africa, and some of the African countries, our own journalists talk very bad about their own country," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

"They don't educate and inform people. If you read, they are always misleading."

"Sometimes you need brain. It's good to have all those qualifications, but you need brain to think. If you analyse when people write - and those people are having all these diplomas and degrees - I'm going to give you example."

"One of the papers said SABC has hide R500 million. If you analyse that what they mean is the CFO of the SABC has hide R5 million [sic], but if you check the books of the SABC, the reality is when we write off all those policies that are not relevant to the business, technically, the auditor-general they will pitch that equals to R500 million."

"But when people talk it seems as if SABC has really hide money. But these are people who are very educated. I wonder, whether they think before they do, whatever they do. That is misleading the country".

"I still believe we need to report good stories; tell South African stories," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng. "SABC is doing very well, financially. We are stable. People who are just talking about SABC collapsing; they are going to collapse themselves. Not SABC."

"Even within the organisation, some of them are not loyal. But we are going to make sure that we deal with people who are not loyal," warned Hlaudi Motsoeneng of SABC workers who he said is sabotaging the public broadcaster. "We are not going to be apologetic."

"In short, SABC we are going to reflect Africa as Africa. We are not going to come with propaganda about negative stories, people killing each other as if we are killing each other."

"If there's no water in Soweto, if you are a good journalist, you will go to Orlando. There's no water in Orlando. But in Diepkloof, there's water. That is what we call balanced story," said Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

President Jacob Zuma said "we are not saying that the SABC News, channel 404, should ignore problems when they arise in the continent."

"What we are saying is that the public broadcaster should balance whatever stories of mayhem, with stories that also show that while there is disaster in one small corner of the continent, the majority there live a normal life."

"It should be stories that tell the full African story, and not the unbalanced, negative scripts that have become the order of the day for years," said president Zuma.

Discovery Networks International looking for the a TV presenter for TLC Entertainment in Next Great Presenter Search which will start in August.

The lifestyle channel TLC Entertainment (DStv 172) is looking for its first South African star – someone who thinks they can be the next Oprah, Buddy Valastro or Randy Fenoli.

Discovery Networks International (DNI) is looking to uncover the first South African presenter to appear on TLC Entertainment, with the competition, TLC Next Great Presenter, which will kick off on Sunday 9 August – Women's Day.

People who consider themselves "super-fans" from across Africa, will be able to enter from 9 August.

DNI hasn't released any more specific details yet, but Lee Hobbs, the vice president of channels for the emerging business division of Discovery Networks for the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region, is hoping for a big response.

"South Africa's Women's Day is the perfect opportunity for us to give back to our TLC fans and launch this fantastic campaign which will see one lucky winner get the chance to present a brand-new show on TLC," says Lee Hobbs.

"We know how vocal our TLC fans are and I'm certain we'll get a tremendous response when the competition officially opens on 9 August and look forward to receiving all the brilliant entries".


Will have to make a presenter’s video
Viewers will have to make and submit a video clip of their TV presenting skills. In the short video for TLC Next Great Presenter, contestants will have to explain why they should be chosen and why they will make a great TLC presenter.

Something people should keep in mind is that TLC Entertainment is the number one lifestyle TV channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform for adults older than 15, as well as women aged between 20 and 49.

Wannabe presenters have to appeal therefore to this market demographic – these viewers must feel as if the person they're looking at is relatable and is speaking to them and their lives.

A panel of experts will create a shortlist out of all of the entries received, after which it will be up to TLC viewers to choose the lucky winner who will get the chance to present TLC Top 10 – a brand-new series coming to TLC Entertainment later this year.

TLC Top 10 will celebrate the biggest and most popular shows that viewers have seen on the channel in South Africa in 2011.

DNI rebranded its Discovery Travel & Living channel in September 2011 to TLC on On Digital Media's (ODM) StarSat which was then still known as TopTV.

A month later, in October 2011, MultiChoice added TLC as well. In October 2013 DNI changed the schedule and rebranded the MultiChoice channel to TLC Entertainment to create a separate and differentiated channel feed on DStv from the TLC channel running on StarSat.

e.tv embracing the telenovela genre; next local mining drama telenovela, Gold Diggers, in production; another 2 telenovelas in development.

e.tv which has found ratings success by embracing the telenovela genre is ramping up to bring viewers the next one entitled Gold Diggers, with another two telenovelas already in development.

South Africa's only free-to-air commercial TV broadcaster has found success with the popular funeral-home set Ashes to Ashes which started in March and which was quickly extended from four to five days a week at 20:00 on the e.tv schedule.

So successful has the breakout show been which scooped up several of SABC1's fired Generations actors who've found new love from audiences who've crossed over, that the telenovela – a limited episode soap with a definite ending – might actually now become a primetime drama series.

Set to conclude in early August, all indications are there that Ashes to Ashes will return to the e.tv schedule in months.

The Ashes to Ashes cast is going to expand with brand-new characters just months before its August conclusion – something which never happens to a TV production winding down.

Furthermore the end in August is also suddenly quietly, yet noticeable, now being billed by e.tv as the "season finale" and not the "series finale" – a subtle yet important difference.

I can reveal that e.tv's second locally produced telenovela, Gold Diggers, will follow Ashes to Ashes in the spring schedule and will revolve – very much like when SABC3's soap Isidingo began before it steadily moved away from its roots – around an extended mining community and the complexities of South African miners'

"The locally produced telenovela as genre is here to stay," Monde Twala, the managing director of e.tv channels told me.

"Local telenovelas are definitely here to stay. e.tv's got a longterm view on our telenovela slate. We already have another telenovela coming which is Gold Diggers and we already have another additional two telenovelas in development".

"Ashes to Ashes was not an experiment. It's part of a strategy to try win audiences in that 20:00 timeslot and we've managed to do that by a few percentage points. It's a good news story but we have to commit to the strategy," says Monde Twala.

"You can't fool the South African market. We can't fool our audience. The expectation is even greater so we're going to continue doing telenovelas".


Gold Diggers: 'Going to be very exciting'
"Gold Diggers is about what runs this country; this economy. It will represent a part of our country and our economy that's mostly been forgotten – and that is the miner. We're a mining country," says Monde Twala.

"I think the stories and the people who are in that environment – they're forgotten and it needs to be told."

"Gold Diggers revolves around an ambitious man who in his world has different relationships. Typically a miner is polygamous," teases Monde Twala, "he's got a wife in the city and a wife back at home. So you can imagine all of these different levels of relationships."

"We tap into that as well as the realities of our country – we recently had a mining crisis, mining strikes, as well as the whole illegal mining, zama zamas [illegal miners] thing. So we're consolidating all of that in the Gold Diggers universe. It's going to be very exciting," says Monde Twala.

SABC1's first local telenovela Uzalo, also introduced to viewers for the first time earlier this year, has similarly been popular with viewers, while SABC2 last year also promised a yet-to-appear local telenovela for 2015 for that TV channel of the public broadcaster.

MultiChoice, which started with Universal Networks International’s (UNI) Telemundo Africa as a telenovela TV channel sourced from South America, has found great success across the continent since its introduction on DStv.

It's led to the recent introduction of a second South American telenovela channel named Eva on DStv's satellite pay-TV platform earlier this year, as well as a Bollywood channel version, Zee World, also showing locally-dubbed Indian telenovelas.

SABC spends a whopping R3 million a year on its choir - to sing the praises of its famously matricless COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The SABC spends a whopping R3 million a year on its choir and among their songs is one singing the praises of the crises-riddled public broadcaster’s famously matricless chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The minister of communications, Faith Muthambi, told parliament that the SABC spends a massive R3 million per year on its choir.

The SABC choir has 40 choristers, 25 freelancers and 15 permanent SABC staff members. The splurge of R3 million per year by the SABC includes a monthly salary of a massive R10 000 for each of the freelancers, as well as travelling costs.

The SABC choir sings songs of praise in SABC staff meetings for the embattled COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng with lyrics like “Hlaudi Motsoeneng reya o leboha” (Hlaudi Motsoeneng we thank you.”)

The embattled Hlaudi Motsoeneng is embroiled in a protracted court fight after the Western Cape High Court has already twice ordered the SABC to immediately suspend him – a judgment he's appealing.

Last year the Public Protector in a damning report implicated Hlaudi Motsoeneng in maladministration and corruption at the public broadcaster, finding that "Hlaudi Motsoeneng should never have been appointed at the SABC" and that he should be suspended.

According to the Public Protector, Hlaudi Motsoeneng lied about having a matric certificate and made up symbols for a matric certificate he knew he didn't have and couldn't produce.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng was implicated as having been involved in getting rid of everyone who testified against him in an earlier disciplinary hearing at the SABC, and his salary increased from R1.5 million to R2.4 million at the SABC in one year.

The Public Protector's report advised the SABC to appoint a new COO within 90 days. Instead the SABC appointed Hlaudi Motsoeneng in the position permanently.

Gavin Davis, a member of parliament (MP) of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and a member of the portfolio committee on communications says in a statement that "the question needs to be asked whether the SABC can justify spending R3 million per year on an in-house choir. Surely it would be cheaper to commission the services of a professional choir if and when the need arises?"

"The fact is that the SABC can't afford unnecessary extravagances such as its own choir. As internal SABC financial documents recently brought to light by the Sunday Times show, the public broadcaster faces a loss of R501 million in this financial year," says Gavin Davis.

"The disbandment of the SABC choir should be at the top of the SABC’s list of cost-cutting measures."

Earlier this week, Faith Muthambi told parliament that the SABC is "in a sound financial state" and that "the SABC is on the move".

Faith Muthambi told parliament that during this financial year R173 million from the department of communications’ budget has been allocated to the SABC.

While Faith Muthambi promised parliament that a new SABC CEO would be in place by the end of September 2014, nine months later the position is still vacant.

The unstable SABC board characterised by vicious infighting has been without a permanent board chairperson for months since the resignation of Ellen Tshabalala following the embarrassing revelations that she had lied about her qualifications.

With originally 12 SABC board members but several resignations last year and purging of three further SABC board members – Hope Zinde, Rachel Kalidass and Ronnie Lubisi – earlier this year, the SABC board no longer has a quorum to legally constitute meetings.