While South Africa celebrates its latest Idols winner, 25-year-old Khaya Mthethwa, the SABC has controversially moved to block some of its outlets from interviewing the new star.

Unathi Msengana, who is both a Metro FM presenter and Idols judge, received instructions from her station manager that she may not interview Mthethwa on her show. It would appear that Gareth Cliff of 5FM – and also an Idols judge – have been given the same orders.

“This morning [Wednesday] an instruction was personally given to me by my station manager not to interview Khaya,” said Msengana, as reported in The Sowetan. “No explanation was given. I had to obey and ask no questions because he is my boss.”

Gareth Cliff had not replied to enquiries around the shock decision, but leave it to the SABC to put its foot in its mouth.

“To start with, Unathi is not even supposed to comment to the media,” said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago. “I am the SABC spokesperson.” He also denied that such instructions were given, adding that Mthethwa was interviewed on two SABC shows the previous week.

But later he confirmed that the orders were indeed given: “We decided that Unathi and Gareth do not interview Khaya because they were conflicted. This is clearly a conflict of interests. Idols belongs to another station.”

Idols is broadcasted on M-Net, a rival to the SABC.

Ingrid Lebinburg, speaking for Idols, was quite surprised at the decision: “We do not know what is happening. Nobody from SABC said anything to us. We are still waiting for them to come to us and explain.”

Making the controversy worse is the fact that Mthethwa is South Africa’s first black idol. For the previous eight seasons Idols has always been won by white or mixed-race contestants – sometimes leading to accusations of vote-rigging. But, according to The Washington Post, the Durban-based gospel singer’s fans campaigned hard for his victory. Not surprisingly, feedback on Twitter has been less than flattering towards the SABC.

“Whaat?! Lol Sabc has issues shem…!” one user remarked. Another cut more to the point: “How can the SABC ban interviews with the First black guy to win Idols ??”

By James Francis
Photos via YIP Photography