Tbo Touch Breaks His Silence After Dismissal From Local TV Station. The saga is still continuing with regards to radio DJ and businessman Tbo Touch after he was allegedly axed from the Soweto TV board. According to Daily Sun, two members from the board were wrongfully fired from the board by Tuis Nkutha.
Touch is one of the directors that were axed after he reportedly reduce employees salaries to apparently save the station. The Daily Sun reported that an investigation was launched with regards to the matter which stated that all decisions made by Mr Nkutha are regarded as unlawful.
“The board would like to remind the staff that all decisions made by Mr Nkutha were unlawful” the statement reads.
According to the publication, a letter from the board addressed to the employees revealed that the board has now decided to elect new directors in place of those who were dismissed. Soweto TV founder Tshepo Thafeng, it was very disappointing to learn what had been happening and there is excusable reason to condone what Mr Nkutha had done.
“A community radio station is not a one man show. A lot of people need to be consulted before actions are taken. What Mr Nkutha did was wrong. Thafeng said.
As for now, Tshepo is unable to confirm if the fired directors will be reinstated as there are many channels that he has to go through before the decision is made. According to the publication, Tbo Touch seems to be convinced that he is still apart fo the channel as he confirmed to the paper that he was in fact reinstated.
“It’s unfortunate that documents were fraudulently fabricated for destructive purposes. I am glad that the channel has been stabilised and the matter is with the commercial claims court” Touch said.
Touch has made the decision to leave the station at the end of May this year even though he was reinstated, but not without sharing why he had made the decision to throw in the towel.
“When the board took over in 2019, the channel was over R19.7 million in debt. The current board helped to reduce the amount by half. TV add spend dropped significantly in 2020. We could have retrenched staff but opted for a 7%- 11% salary decrease” he said.
It was reported that the Touch and Nokuthula Zulu were held accountable for making the executive decision to reducing everyones salary as part of extreme measures they implemented to save costs at the station. The employees then took the channel to court and won their battle and the station was then ordered to pay the employees a three month lump sum of their money as compensation however, the channel failed to do so.
