Gabz FM fires Reggie and Shumba

The management of Gabz FM has finally decided to part ways with the ‘Breakfast With Reg’ morning show duo of presenter Reginald Richardson and content producer Keikantse Shumba.

Having been slapped with suspensions early November, the duo returned two Fridays ago, only to be suspended again, prompting interventions from media workers and other members of the civil society who called on the radio station to reinstate them. Last week, Botswana Media and Allied Workers Union (BOMAWU) marched to the station’s premises where they handed a petition demanding that the duo be reinstated in 14-days.

“BOMAWU demands the immediate reinstatement of Shumba and Richardson to their duties and responsibilities without any fear of victimisation and intimidation. Failure to acquiesce the abovementioned demands within the next 14 days would indicate that the organisation has no interests in the rights of their employees,” BOMAWU President Phillimon Mmeso said last week when presenting the petition to Gabz FM management.

He said intimidation in the workplace and unfair persecution of journalists for carrying out their responsibilities cannot be condoned.  He thus called on media workers to stand up and uproot these ills before they permeate throughout the industry and permanently tarnish it. But yesterday Shumba confirmed that she received a letter terminating her contract with the radio station, a letter she said had the same contents with that given to Richardson on the same day. Richardson himself could not be reached as his mobile was off air.

In a twist, it turns out that at the time of the march by journalists, politicians and other labour movements on Thursday, the letters terminating Richardson and Shumba’s contracts had already been written. The Midweek Sun can reveal that the letters were written on Monday November 21, three days before the petition was handed on Thursday.

At press time yesterday the media workers’ union had not revealed their next move, but The Midweek Sun has learnt that the union leadership had met their lawyer Attorney Dick Bayford, together with the suspended duo to chart a way forward, in which private prosecution cannot be discounted as suggested in Mmeso’s message when delivering the petition.