An open letter to Phalaphala FM

Date: 13 May 2022   Read: 285

Mufuniwa (Nthambeleni) Gabara writes:

Those of us who are in the media space, we rarely criticise each other in public. In most cases, the criticism is always coming from those outside the media space.

However, I feel compelled to criticise our radio station - Phalaphala FM. Yes, you do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that Phalaphala FM is failing to advance the public interests of its listeners -who are mostly the Vhavenda nation.

For reasons known to themselves, on Sunday May 8, 2022, Phalaphala FM gave a questionable foreign national – a Zimbabwean citizen Joshua Maponga, free airtime to lecture the Vhavenda nation about ‘Vhurereli ha hashu’. Can you believe it!

It is shocking how Phalaphala FM gave Maponga free airtime, despite him known as someone who do not respect the rule of law in this country.

Remember, this is the foreign national who is yet to dispute the allegations that he was in South Africa illegally and allegedly used a fraudulent ID.

Truth be told, even if Maponga was in the country legally, he did not deserve to be given free airtime, for the simple reason that his umbilical cord fell on the other side of the Limpopo River.

Back in his country of origin, I doubt if the great journalist, Geoffrey Nyarota considers Maponga as one of the reliable sources of information.  

With his irrelevant Pan Africanist ideology, Maponga is not our role model neither is he an expert about the culture and tradition of the Vhavenda nation. We also do not want to impose him through Phalaphala FM as a role model for our kids.

If my views about Maponga qualifies me to be labelled xenophobic, let it be!

Do we really have to remind those in management at Phalaphala FM that the SABC is a National Key Point?

It can’t be correct to reduce our radio station to the level of being the playing ground of ZANU-PF people who collapsed their country with their outdated Pan Africanist philosophy.

Now, we want to make it clear that anyone at Phalaphala FM management who view Maponga as their role model, should invite him to their family gatherings.

Imagine switching on your radio and hearing the voice of Maponga, who together with his other ZANU-PF gangs, think that as South Africans, we are not educated.

Some of us who are outside the Vhembe District, we rely on Phalaphala FM in terms of educating our kids to learn how to speak their mother tongue - Tshivenda. We know that it is the right thing to encourage them to listen to Phalaphala FM all the time, as it actually helps them to grow up being proud of their identity.

However, if Phalaphala FM wants to continue to serve their own selfish interests by giving foreign nationals like Maponga free airtime at the station to spew his hogwash, we will listen to other radio stations. It should be our responsibility to protect our kids from Maponga’s poisonous ideology. 

We know that at the SABC there is a charter that the corporation must comply with. In terms of the charter, the SABC must encourage the development of South African expression by providing in South African official languages, a wide range of programming that reflects South African attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity; display South African talent in education and entertainment programmes; offers a plurality of views and a variety of news, information and analysis from a South African point of view.

Now, the question is whose interests was Maponga advancing at Phalaphala FM? Did the station gain more listeners by giving Maponga free airtime?

For Phalaphala FM to feature on the top ten radio stations list, they must do what one of their legendary presenters, Vho-Mpho Nefale used to boast about while live on air … that “we believe in in-depth journalism … and we give our listeners more of what they want and less of what they don’t.”

Phalaphala FM is not the playground of those whose umbilical cords fell outside the Vhembe District if not South Africa.

- Mufuniwa (Nthambeleni) Gabara is a resident of Tshimbupfe, but who is currently based in Gauteng.