SABC Refutes Bonang Matheba's 1 Hour Co-host Notice Claim

Bonang Matheba sent shockwaves around Mzansi and as far afield as Nigeria when she announced via Twitter yesterday that she has decided to leave Metro FM. Following her announcement few speculations were made regarding her decision to leave. 

Few on social media accused Bonang of having quit her job as The Front Row host because she was expected to share the hosting reins with Lerato Kganyago. On that, Bonang has since shot down such sentiments, stating that her decision to leave was about principle and it had nothing to do with Lerato or anyone else for that matter. 

To that principle point, Bonang shared on Twitter that she was ambushed by the decisions to add a co-host to her show. She posted on twitter; 

"...my heart is broken. I was told about the changes to my show an hour before going on air today...". 

....my heart is broken. I was told about the changes to my show an hour before going on air today...

— Bonang B* Matheba (@bonang_m) April 3, 2017

Well, Metro FM via the SABC's spokesperson is hitting back and basically calling Matheba a liar. For their position on this, SABC says; 

“She [Bonang Matheba]‚ along with everybody else‚ was asked by management several times to attend meetings. She failed to attend despite agreed upon times and she herself suggested she come in early on Monday. This is entirely her own doing‚” 

This is in direct contradiction to what Bonang tweeted and reportedly told TshisaLive. In an article on TshisaLive Bonang is quoted as reiterating the 1 hour notification claims and further saying; 

“I get there at 8.30 am [on Monday] and they are like ‘oh you got a new presenter‚ a new producer and JJ is gone‚’ and I was like what?”

I made it very clear on Twitter even before the SABC responded, that if Bonang's chronology of events is accurate, then what Metro FM did was utterly unacceptable and Bonang was well within her rights to take whatever action that best suits her interests.  

So just to be clear on this;  SABC [Metro FM] is saying Bonang was not just told an hour before her show about the changes, she was asked to come to a meeting to discuss the then pending changes but failed to show up. If she was the one who asked to only come to that meeting on Monday... then just saying she was told an hour before her show without putting that info into this context was a tad misleading.

I was already hearing some murmurs from the SABC yesterday just as she was tweeting and I tweeted her asking if she had any concern that the saga would affect her relationship with SABC. I had hoped she would reply and I would tell her that SABC is saying something different so that she can have an opportunity to take control of the narrative. She didn't respond and just as I was warned, the SABC released a different account to the media.

I knew if I just came out and said to her; this is what is coming out of SABC, I would have been accused of trying to make her look bad, given our history. Even Penny Lebyane, just by me asking about the concern Bonang could have had, thought I was remiss. But I knew a different story was coming out soon.

Now the question is; who between Bonang and Metro is misleading the public?