Tbo Touch costs Metro FM R15 million

Metro FM DJ Thabo "T-Bo Touch" Molefe was suspended because he was allegedly embroiled in a physical confrontation with one of his producers and his employers reportedly lost at least R15-million in advertising because he refused to read a Hyundai advert on air.

Sunday World reports the versatile DJ, who presents The Touchdown on the SABC commercial radio station every weekday from 3-6pm, also allegedly put the phone down on his boss Sibongile Mtyali when she confronted him about his alleged insubordination and defiance.

T-Bo Touch also introduced a new segment Gospel Replenish on Monday, allegedly without consulting or obtaining permission from Mtyali.

He also faces accusations of violating the station's play list policy when he played music he allegedly personally selected and refused to play that which the music compiler instructed him to play.

It was also alleged that T-Bo Touch sneezed at his bosses' orders to do at least two interviews on his popular show saying that would sap his energy.

He was alleged to have also cocked a snook at Mtyali's instruction that the duration of Gospel Replenish inset on Mondays be reduced from an hour to 30 minutes.

T-Bo Touch declined to comment and referred all questions to SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago.

Kganyago declined to comment on the allegations and charges levelled against the award-winning DJ.

"Mr Molefe has got issues with management that he needs to resolve with them," he said.

Two senior SABC officials confirmed the station lost at least R15-million in advertising when the DJ refused to do a live read.

One official, who did not want to be named because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said the station signed a R15-million contract with the car maker to sponsor Molefe's Rush Hour slot which was changed to Hyundai Rush Hour.

The contract decreed that Molefe constantly refer to the show as "Hyundai Rush Hour" but he repeatedly refused to do so and chose to refer to it as just Rush Hour.

"As a result of his attitude and refusal to mention them as the segment sponsor Hyundai terminated the contract and the station lost R15-million," said the official.

The official also confirmed that Molefe and one of his producers were involved a "physical confrontation" days before his suspension.

According to the official, the confrontation was ignited by Molefe's alleged refusal to decrease the time allocated to the Gospel Replenish segment.

"Instead he started the inset 30 minutes before its usual time thereby giving it more than an hour.

"This pissed Sibongile (Mtyali) off and she phoned T-Bo Touch's producer and demanded answers from him.

"The producer then handed the phone to Touch who grabbed it and slammed it down in Sibongile's ear," said the official.

The official said Molefe and the producer started shoving and pushing each other when the latter asked him to stop his shenanigans.

"The producer laid a complaint against him and that is one of the charges he is facing," said the official.

Another official said Molefe defied orders to play music selected by the music compiler.

The official said Molefe was given until last week Friday to explain in writing why he should not be fired from his job.

He said instead of explaining himself, T-Bo Touch ran to SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and nuzzled him to force Mtyali to drop the charges against him.

"Hlaudi told him that he didn't want to get involved at that stage and asked him to first send his response to the charges to Sibongile," said the official.

The official also claimed that Molefe's friend and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula phoned SABC head of radio Lesley Ntloko and apologised on behalf of the DJ.

Mbalula refuted allegations that he apologised to Ntloko on behalf of Molefe. "It's nonsense, I don't know what you are talking about."

This article first appeared on Sunday World.