Former co-host of Thobela FM’s Ditlalemeso morning drive show, Taemane “ Lenny T” Phahlane (Legodi) has asked the Limpopo High Court to prevent the SABC from employing his replacement on the prime time slot and reinstate him instead.
Earlier this month, the station’s controversial mandarins denied Phahlane access to the SABC building in Polokwane.
The hierarchy blocked Phahlane from sauntering into the studios shortly after he had signed a contract for his services as co-host of the show with Lethabo “Lee Joy” Mathatho.
This sparked a public outcry, with a group of Thobela FM listeners marching to the SABC, demanding the reinstatement of the talented Phahlane, and accusing the station’s bosses of running the Sepedi station like their own personal fiefdom, practising shotgun management and killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
The march was followed by an ANC Youth League protest against the SABC on Friday.
In the court papers, which we have seen, Phahlane said he signed a contract with the SABC on March 31 to present the morning show without finalising his payment rate.
The contract, he said, was to run until March 31 next year. He added that the SABC has not at any stage accused him of breaching that contract.
He said that on April 3, he went to work but was prevented from doing so.
“And I was refused entrance to the premises by the security guards on the instruction of the respondent’s employees who are responsible for the management and overseeing of my contract with the broadcaster. I was surprised because the contract obligated me to be present every morning,” he said.
Phahlane said he returned home and made enquiries with the SABC about the precise reasons for barring him from entering the premises. He said the SABC mandarins clutched at straws and could not provide him cogent reasons.
“I could not get a straight answer from the persons with whom I was making enquiries. At the same time, I sought legal advice because I was afraid of being accused of being in breach of my contractual obligations because I did not show up at work on the day in question.”
Phahlane said he later approached his lawyer, Sam Matsimela, of Mmakola Matsimela Incorporated, who sent a letter to the SABC on April 8, seeking answers for the broadcaster’s repudiation of their contract.
“At this juncture, it is apposite to intimate to the honourable court that SABC continued to advertise the morning project or programme called MorningDrive/Ditlalemeso using my name as the host of the show, this happened until April 8, 2025,” he said.
Phahlane further stated that on April 11, the SABC wrote to his lawyers, stating that their offer had been revoked. “But the revocation has never been communicated to me, or that the offer of March 31, had a condition that it must be accepted on 31 March 2025. The SABC, after receipt of my signed acceptance, never challenged the validity of the [contract] by virtue of their acceptance and absence of a clear revocation as at the date of April 2, 2025, or a condition antecedent March 31, 2025 offer; the SABC is bound,” he said.
Phahlane said the SABC’s claim that the offer was not signed by March 1, 2025 and therefore invalid or that there was revocation, was wrong at every conceivable level.
“I respectfully submit that it is a red herring because the decision to revoke the contract was taken after 2 April 2025, having signed the contract and the contract having a binding effect,” he said.
Phahlane said, surprisingly, the revocation claim was brought to his attention for the first time by the legal representatives of the SABC. He challenged the SABC to produce emails to support its claims, a demonstrable lie.
“Therefore the substantial remedy would involve reinstatement to the morning show as a form of a specific performance arising from the contract itself and in the alternative in the form of an interdict directing the SABC to comply with its part of obligations in terms of the contract, which would include reinstating me to the morning show and to pay me in accordance with the letter of the written contract,” he said.
