Radio personality and television presenter Pearl Thusi has come out to say that she was “bullied” and some times she would take hit for things Phat Joe would do. In Behind The Story with Pearl Thusi, DJ Fresh and Pearl excessively expressed how ill the SABC treats its personalities and freelancers.
In the hot chair on Wednesday’s episode of Behind The Story with Pearl Thusi, DJ Fresh, real name Thato Sikwane was on the hot seat, but Pearl also poured her heart out about the ill-treatment at the SABC.
And…
- You know what it is Fresh
- When Phat Joe and I got bullied,
- When Robert Marawa got bullied,
- When Bonang Matheba got bullied,
- When Tbo Touch got bullied and;
- When DJ Sbu got bullied…
“When Phat Joe and I were hosting some times I would take hit for things that he would do and because I have a different private part, things would work out in a different way for me than they would for him,” says Pearl Thusi, in a bid to find out from DJ Fresh if female and males are treated differently in the industry.
Emphasising the ill-treatment at the SABC Pearl Thusi says, “When what happened to Masechaba Ndlovu happened I mean it was unfortunate. I didn’t agree with her either but I didn’t think she deserved to be fired the way it happened”.
“But you know what it is Fresh also when Phat Joe and I got bullied, Robert got bullied, Bonang got bullied, Tbo Touch got bullied and when DJ Sbu got bullied we don’t stand up for each other because we are afraid of losing our work or we’re just not unified,” says Pearl Thusi.
DJ Fresh also says that when he told SABC that they were hurting the brand, judging by the Social Media outcry, he was told that the SABC will not allow Social Media to dictate ‘anything to us’.
DJ Fresh says:
- Mpho Maboi (Letsholonyane) found out on the 31st of March 2019 that she does not have a radio show.
- We were all broken.
- SABC didn’t meet my expectations from the admin point of view.
- Never been on radio and never had an offer from somewhere else.
- Changing radio line-ups every March does not make any sense.
- How do you sleep at night treating people like that?
“Damn good broadcasters lose gigs without being told why… Do you know that Mpho found out on the 31st of March on a Friday, the last Friday of the show that she doesn’t have a radio gig anymore? How do you sleep at night treating people like that? And one of the reasons I took a hard stance with the SABC and Metro it’s because my principles didn’t allow me to be bullied like that, but a lot of people can’t afford to take the stand because that’s your bread and butter,” says DJ Fresh.
He asked Pearl Thusi if she knows how much he was getting paid and apparently it was ‘bad’. Pearl also responded by saying, “I shouldn’t tell you how much I was getting paid”.
DJ Fresh says that he respects Robert Marawa because he’s the only one in that building “with balls enough” to tell management when they are doing wrong.
In June DJ Fresh was tied in a dispute with the SABC over ‘foul language’ on-air that resulted in him being taken off the air, on the 9 of July the SABC released a statement confirming that his employment contract has been terminated.
He had used the word ‘msunery’ on-air and a complaint was lodged with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) alleging the DJ Fresh used an adaptation of the Zulu word in response to a listener on-air.
The Broadcaster’s statement explained that they’ve decided to let the legendary radio personality go following unsuccessful engagements and the DJ’s conduct bringing the state-broadcaster into disrepute.
SABC’s Spokesperson, Vuyo Mthembu has not responded to our email by the time of going to press.
Catch Behind The Story with Pearl Thusi on BET Africa Dstv Channel 129 on Wednesdays at 22:00 (CAT).
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