eNCA debacle: EFF express rage, as Pravin Gordhan ‘implicated’

There’s more than a storm brewing at eNCA: This, by all accounts, is a Category 5 disaster for the news station. Samkele Maseko’s revelations about unfair treatment amid his hasty exit from the broadcaster has got tongues wagging across South Africa – and the EFF have taken notice too.

EFF react to eNCA storm

The Red Berets issued a statement on the matter earlier on Thursday. They are leading the calls for a complete boycott of eNCA, and claim that Kanthan Pillay was racially-motivated with his decsion to kick Maseko out of the door on Thursday afternoon, refusing his right to serve a notice period:

“The EFF condemns the racist treatment of black journalists. One of the managers at eNCA called Samkele Maseko ‘a rat’ after firing him. There has been a total deterioration of ethics and leadership at the station.”

“South Africans must unite in totally boycotting eNCA. No-one must call an African child a rat in our country. Had it been a white journalist who was treated like Maseko was, Sanef would be vocal and already calling for an immediate investigation. Their silence is complicit in racism.”

EFF statement

Is Pravin Gordhan involved?

Surprisingly, Pravin Gordhan has found himself dragged into something of a conspiracy – much to the EFF’s delight, we are sure. The divisive minister is alleged to have been quite a sore point for Samkele Maseko, who claims that his bosses at eNCA – and Kanthan Pillay in particular – want to protect the energy supremo:

“Do you want me to speak about how you [Kanthan Pillay] instructed that MP Bongani Bongo be censored by removing all the allegations he made at Minister Pravin Gordhan? What happened to a simple journalism principle of two sides to a story, getting both parties to answer for themselves?”

“Or do you want to speak about how you canned an SAA story saying a journalist is an imbongi of the workers, wanting Journalists to find faults with workers at all costs whilst protecting bosses?”

Samkele Maseko

Latest updates on Kanthan Pillay, Samkele Maseko and eNCA:

It’s not just Samkele Maseko who has had hus run-ins with Pillay on this matter. Veteran journalist Aldrin Sampear also revealed a similar incident happened to him earlier this year – when he was threatened with ‘censure’ – directly from Gordhan himself – it’s alleged that his bosses at eNCA refused to intervene.

It's not a principle if applied inconsistently

e.g this year while working @ eNCA, Min Gordhan said he's never giving me interviews again. My bosses knew🤷🏽‍♂️When I shared the incident, interviewing Rampedi months later, on twitter colleagues told me to toughen up

Principles? https://t.co/Ahf7gugkyl

— Aldrin Sampear (@AldrinSampear) December 14, 2019

Could there be more to this than meets the eye? It certainly lends credence to the EFF’s sustained campaign against Pravin Gordhan, but we’ll need more than hearsay to see if “Jamnandas” has really been playing the channel.