South Africa’s privately owned eNCA news network on Friday dismissed its news director who torched a racial storm after he referred to a subordinate as a “rat”.
The news channel announced that it has “parted company with its director of news Kanthan Pillay with immediate effect” after he took to Twitter comparing senior political journalist Samkele Maseko to a rat and the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation to a sinking ship.
“After intense overnight investigation and consultation, the channel decided it had no alternative but to end its relationship with him,” eNCA said in a statement.
The news director, who is also the leader of the Purple Cow political party that contested South Africa’s national elections in May, was caught in the eye of a storm this week after he referred to Maseko’s move to the SABC as “rats swimming toward a sinking ship”.
The comments drew an angry response from black South Africans, including the militant opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, which called Pillay a racist and demanded his dismissal from eNCA, failing which it urged locals to boycott the news channel.
JN/APA