Popular morning-show SAfm radio host Sakina Kamwendo had her last Forum At Eight programme shut down by management halfway through the allotted hour. Producers were instructed to take Kamwendo off air and fill in the time with any available music.
Management was apparently furious that the presenter, in what she had been told was her final show, had made it clear that she had been kept in the dark about what her future would be when her contract ended. She also mentioned the difficulties in the past that had left staff at the public broadcaster severely demoralised.
Although she did not mention it, colleagues at the public broadcaster confirmed that Kamwendo had first heard from another – private – radio station that she would not be re-employed on the morning show. Word was that another presenter had already been signed to do the show.
At the time, Kamwendo admitted she had heard "a rumour", but had been told nothing by management. In fact, she thought she would be continuing with the programme that is widely considered to have restored much of the tattered credibility of the SABC.
During her tenure of broadcast, Kamwendo and her team were put under tremendous pressure when they continued to invite guests who were regarded as "unsuitable" by the then-management. Kamwendo's hard-hitting interview style also apparently annoyed several of the mandarins at the Auckland Park headquarters of the SABC.
"But what they have done now is crazy," a colleague said in a telephone interview on Friday morning. "Listeners were phoning up, and they weren't happy – and then the order came to shut down the programme."
The order was reportedly relayed to technical staff by a manager.