The SABC has humiliated the ANC’s Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Peace Mabe, when it expunged her from the list of guests selected to present a Metro FM award when she was two hours away from Mbombela, where the star-studded event was held three weeks ago.
Mabe is now demanding an apology from the SABC for the utter disrespect and degrading treatment the corporation subjected her to.
“They should give me an apology; they should come to me and apologise because I was just abruptly removed from presenting an award when they had personally written to me, inviting me for that.”
According to the information received from her sympathiser, Mabe received an invite from the SABC to co-present the gong with the reigning Miss South Africa, Mia le Roux.
The date of presenting the accolade coincided with a critical ANC workshop she was attending in Gauteng. But she asked her political principals to release her early so she could drive to Mpumalanga to present the award at the annual do.
She bought a dress and hired make-up artists to jazz her up. The state hired a car for her, and paid for her accommodation.
But a few hours before her arrival, Mabe received a call from an SABC executive who informed her that she was no longer required to present the award. This cheesed her off.
“For me to get to the awards, you know the logistics? There was a meeting. I paid for a professional makeup artist already. I was ready. I had bought a dress. Government had paid for my bookings. They had paid for my car and the people that I travelled with. Who’s going to incur those costs? It’s fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and, personally, money that I don’t have,” she said.
Mabe said the shoddy treatment did not only humiliate her but also punched a hole in her pocket.
“When I pay for makeup, nobody sponsors that. It’s out of my own pocket. It’s things that I buy with the money that I don’t have because, also, people will not appreciate it if I appeared there looking shoddy. They would not appreciate that. It’s about honouring the moment.
“So, the money that I lost there, no one’s going to compensate me for that. I cannot be told two hours before or three hours before the event that I’m no longer going to present the award. But I did raise the matter with them, and I am not happy about the treatment.”
Mabe said she was ill-treated simply because she is a woman. She also hinted that the decision to remove her was orchestrated by a female executive at the SABC.
“I feel that women have no respect for other women because apparently there are some women who decided that I must be removed. Generally women who are in positions of leadership are not respected,” she said, adding that they would not have done that to her boss Gayton Mackenzie.
“They would never do that to him.”
Mabe also claimed that she was not the only person at the receiving end of the SABC’s uncouth treatment.
“Do you know about the poor Ms South Africa? I’m told she was also there, and the initial proposal was that I and Ms South Africa were going to co-present the award. She was never given any respect. It is officials who are disrespectful, who are not mindful of their actions, who have no regard for authority, especially for women in leadership.
“It is SABC officials who are interfering. They know that they get away with everything and they never get to be challenged. I’m not happy about what happened there. It is wrong, and it should never happen to anyone,” she said.
Mabe is demanding a refund for the money she spent for the event. “ They must refund me all the money that I lost during that week preparing for the award. I must give them my bill for my makeup and dress. They must pay for it. I spent R12 00.
“What have I done to these people to treat me like this? But this bad treatment of women, literally, it ends with me. It will not continue,” she asserted.