A Mpumalanga woman says she will never forgive the SABC for turning her into a laughing stock in her community and causing her depression.
Thethiwe Mahlangu says she has not received the car she won on the public broadcaster’s song of the year competition seven years ago.
Mahlangu, who is based in Kwa-Mhlanga, says she has been sent from pillar to post by the SABC for answers on why she still does not have the car. She won the car in December 2016 after she entered the SABC song of the year competition through their pay your licence activation.
She alleges that she lost over R40 000 going to lawyers and being sent to different dealerships by the public broadcaster to collect a Kia Picanto that she had won in the competition along with three other people.
“The sad part is that I am the only one who has not received the car out of all the three winners of that competition. Everyone else has been given their car. That hurts me even more because it shows that I am not taken seriously by the SABC,” she claims.
Mahlangu says her tears of joy dried up quickly after she was shown the brand-new car and was paraded on SABC radio stations and shows, including Morning Live, where she beamed with pride in front of her car, only for her to be told that she could not take her prize home.
“They called me to a prize-winning event a week after we won. We went there, posed with the car and they made me take pictures and also appear on Morning Live show. Then when we were done when I was supposed to drive off with the car, they told me that I can’t. They said I must collect the car at the dealership,” Mahlangu said.
She said what followed was a frustrating journey of going to different dealerships to collect the car but was never allowed to take it because of reasons unknown to her.
“They made me go to different dealership to collect the car but when I got there I could not take the car home because there were payment issues that the dealership wanted to clear,” she adds.
Mahlangu said she spent over R40 000 on trips to and from the dealerships and going to lawyers to have the matter resolved.
“I have never been so humiliated in my life. They made me pose for the pictures and everyone from my neighbourhood congratulated me but here I am, years later. I don’t have the car and I have turned into a joke in my neighbourhood.
“My parents even bought a goat and slaughtered it when I won the car to thank the ancestors. Everyone was invited to celebrate but my parents passed away the following year without even seeing the car,” she says.
SABC Acting Group Executive for Corporate Affairs and Marketing Mmoni Seapolela said the broadcaster was not responsible for the car giveaway, saying it was the promoter that failed.
“The SABC has publicly communicated its position on this matter and would like to reiterate that the corporation has met all its contractual obligations pertaining to the partnership it entered into with the promoter for the said competition. In this regard, it is the promoter that has failed to carry out its contractual obligation of giving a car/prize to the winner of the competition.”
The promoter at the time was former employee Owen Ndlovu, of Owen Ndlovu Entertainment. Ndlovu, who is involved in another legal battle with the SABC for the same concept, has kept mum.
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