Dirty fight for control over Vhembe FM

The tug-of-war for the administration and control of the local community radio station, Vhembe FM, continues. The feud has also spread to the courts, and on Monday, the man who claims to be the founder and license holder of the station, Thendo Percy Mathobo, appeared again in the Thohoyandou Magistrate’s Court, facing charges of fraud and corruption.

It is alleged that Mathobo broke into the studio and stole computers. It is further alleged that he forged the signature of the chairperson of the Board of Directors, Mr Robert Mphephu, and wrote a letter stating that he (Mphephu) had resigned as the chairperson of the Board of Directors.

He was arrested in 2019 and charged only in connection with the alleged fraud. The case was postponed to 23 September 2024 for further police investigations.

The bone of contention between Mphephu and Mathobo allegedly started shortly after the station began broadcasting in 2017. The radio station started off ambitiously, recruiting the cream of local journalists and presenters. The Thulamela Municipality even offered them offices to operate from at the Thohoyandou Indoor Sports Centre.

They managed to convince big names in the local broadcasting industry, such as Jimmy “The Scratcher” Netshilulu, Emmanuel Khalushi, Divhani “Flavour” Dagada, and Vuledzani “VIP” Pilani, to join the team.

Instead of taking up the municipality’s offer, Mathobo told staff members that he had found offices at the 2010 Centre in Thohoyandou. This also just happened to be one of Mr Robert Mphephu’s buildings.

Just two months into the broadcasts, cracks started to show between the alleged license holder, Mathobo, and the owner of the building, Mphephu. Staff who worked at the station at the time said that both wanted to have absolute power to run the station. Sources within the radio station say Mathobo was fired from the station and was also banned from entering the business premises.

“As he left his own property there and was barred from entering the premises, he had to devise methods to get in there and take his computers. He allegedly broke into the building to take his own stuff,” said a source.

When Mathobo and his followers could no longer broadcast from the station, they moved to a premises in the Thohoyandou CBD. It is alleged that they started broadcasting using a different frequency, but still used the name Vhembe FM.

After broadcasting for at least three months, the regulator, Icasa, stepped in and closed them down. Within a week, however, they were broadcasting again, but this time online. Icasa does not control online broadcasts.

Date:26 July 2024

By: Victor Mukwevho

Victor Mukwevho Ne-vumbani joined the Mirror during it's inception in 1990. He joined the SABC newsroom in 1995, and was known by  listeners as "A u fhedzisela ari". He was a news editor for The Tembisan Newspaper from 2007 to 2015. He rejoined the Limpopo Mirror newspaper in June 2022 as a freelance journalist.

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