MojaLove channel has withheld Uyajola 9/9 presenter Jub Jub’s salary as punishment for allegedly insulting his female business partner, Keabetswe Mokoena, using expletives to describe her mother’s private parts.
Mokoena and Jub Jub, who were co-organisers of the Moses Kotane Arts Festival, which was billed for Moruleng Stadium in North West in December last year, drifted apart after squabbling over the musician’s unilateral decision to expunge some of the artists from the line-up of artists booked to perform.
The Ndikondelele hit maker, allegedly lost his marbles and hurled degrading profanities at Mokoena’s mother.
This piqued MojaLove CEO Aubrey Tau, who complained that Jub Jub had violated the channel’s anti-gender-based violence policy, and should carry the can for the faux pas.
“The CEO is a proponent of anti-gender-based violence and abhors the abuse of women and children. He felt Jub Jub should be punished severely as that would serve as a deterrent to would-be transgressors of the company’s policy,” said the channel’s executive, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation.
The executive further said Tau was contemplating terminating Jub Jub’s contract, scheduled to end next month, after receiving a letter of demand from his lawyer, Baloyi-Ntsako Attorneys, demanding payment of his January salary.
“All the CEO wanted was for Jub Jub to unconditionally apologise to this woman and learn from his mistake and move on, but because of egotism and hubris, he refused,” said the executive.
Sunday World has seen the letter from Jub Jub’s lawyers in which they demand the payment of his salary by Friday or face the full might of the law.
The letter reads in part: “It is our instructions that our client is contracted to you as the performer for the show called “Uyajola 99” effective 18 March 2022 in terms of a written agreement (“the contract”).
“The contract, on this score, was concluded on or about 18 March 2022. Our client was on those basis (sic) contracted on a permanent basis for a duration of 1 (one) year and thus the contract as aforestated still subsists.
“Quite shockingly and to his detriment, he informs us that to date he has not received his monthly salary for January 2023, and attempts to inquire were met with aggressive non-committal responses from both yourself as the CEO and the broadcaster legal adviser, one Advocate Nandi Ndaba.”
The lawyers also said withholding Jub Jub’s salary did not only financially prejudice him but was also unconstitutional and in breach of the employment contract they signed with him.
They further chastised the channel for operating like a “spaza shop” for not following the process and procedures to discipline Jub Jub if he has violated the terms and conditions of his contract.
“A business of this magnitude, such as that of the broadcaster, MojaLove, cannot be run as spaza shop, it’s unprofessional, unethical and completely abhorrent. It is our informed and considered opinion that the treatment you are subjecting our client under, inclusive of non-payment of his salary is unfair, unlawful, wrongful conduct and inhumane,” reads the letter.
They threatened to take the channel to court on urgent basis and seek a punitive cost order against it if it failed to comply with their letter of demand.
“We have taken instructions from our client and he specifically instructed us to institute legal proceedings against yourself in your personal capacity for abuse and ill-treatment and the broadcaster for breach of contract, unfair labour practice and all other related matters he suffered,” read the letter.
For the latest entertainment news from Sunday World, click here.
Or read the latest from Shwashwi here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
