Unathi vs Sizwe — The Fight For Drive
The Ultimate Afropolitan Showdown
On 17 November 2021, Kaya 959 (as it is officially called now) released a statement announcing the station has parted ways with Midday Joy presenter Unathi Nkayi. According to the statement, the termination of her contract is due to a breakdown in the relationship of trust between Nkayi and the station’s management.
Sunday World then published an article detailing the events that led to the fallout between Nkayi and the station. The Sunday World article is central but not the main focus of this article.
Let’s start by setting up some background.
Unathi Nkayi launched into the commercial radio scene on YFM with a 9–12pm show on what was then the most popular youth radio station. Nkayi’s YFM show did so well that she moved straight to Metro FM’s breakfast show in 2007 where she co-hosted alongside radio giant Glen Lewis. Nkayi spent 10 years at Metro FM’s breakfast show. In the world of radio, shows are re-evaluated annually so it’s important to note that every year, the management at the station thought Unathi and Glen were doing such a great job that they kept them on the same show for 10 years.
In 2017, Nkayi left Metro FM and did not return to radio until February 2020.
YFM is best known for launching the careers of some of the major talents in South Africa and Sizwe Dhlomo is one of them. Siyabonga ‘Scoop’ Ngwekazi and Dlomo hosted the Siz n Scoop show on the 9–12pm weekend slot on YFM. Siz n Scoop was a hip hop show that launched many of the working hip hop artists today through a segment that allowed up and coming rappers to show off their skills on air. Dhlomo was at YFM for less than 2 years.
After the success of that show, Dhlomo left YFM and moved to 947 where he hosted a Friday and Saturday night show. After 947 he transitioned to talk radio by hosting a late night show with Gugu Mhlungu.
In as far as radio is concerned, it is clear that Nkayi is far more qualified and has a lot more experience at hosting a prime time radio slot.
Now that we have set up the background, let’s build up to the ‘main event’.
When Bob Mabena and Kuli Roberts’ Kaya FM breakfast show ended, David O’Sullivan was brought in to host the breakfast show, he had no co-host. O’Sullivan being an old school journalist, struggled with the light-hearted content that was a regular occurrence on the breakfast show. Then Managing Director of the Station, Greg Maloka, set out to find a co-host for O’Sullivan.
Maloka had his eyes set on Unathi Nkayi to join the Kaya Breakfast. During negotiations, Maloka had to take a trip to Rwanda and left the negotiations to another senior person at the station. Negotiations broke down between Nkayi and the person negotiating on behalf of Kaya and the deal fell through. The station eventually recruited Thabiso Sikwane (DJ Fresh’s wife) and Jason Goliath to co-host the breakfast show alongside O’Sullivan.
Maloka was dead-set on having Nkayi behind the mic again after hiring her at YFM all those years ago so he did not give up. When Bridget Masinga left the 12–3 slot at Kaya to join SAFM, Maloka got the perfect opportunity to bring in Nkayi to replace Masinga. Nkayi took over the midday slot in February 2020.
At the time when Nkayi joined Kaya, the drive show was a 2 hour slot (3–5pm) hosted by the dynamic duo Kgomotso Matsunyane and Ndumiso Ngcobo. It was clear to those of us who closely follow the radio world that Matsunyane and Ngcobo would not be on the drive slot for a long time.
Given Nkayi’s experience on radio, the fantastic work she did at Metro breakfast and that she had initially been approached to do Kaya breakfast, I suspect Maloka brought Nkayi onto Kaya FM to host the midday show with a promise to bump her to drive when Matsunyane and Ngcobo inevitably exit.
Had this promise materialized, Nkayi would have joined a very small list of radio hosts who have hosted a breakfast and drive show at a major radio station. This would have sealed her status as a radio legend.
It so happened that Matsunyane and Ngcobo decided to exit the station sooner than Maloka had thought. Shortly after Nkayi started on the midday show, Matsunyane and Ngcobo announced their exist from the station. This left Maloka in a conundrum because he couldn’t immediately move Nkayi to drive as she had just started on the midday show and was still being introduced to Afropolitans.
Dhlomo claims that Nkayi facilitated his joining Kaya 959 because Nkayi DM’ed him asking if she could give Maloka his number. Another of my suspicions is that Maloka and Nkayi thought Dhlomo would be the perfect placeholder while Nkayi builds up to drive. Dhlomo is not known for holding a radio gig for long and he does not necessarily need a job so they would have been justified in thinking Dhlomo would not be interested in being at the station for long.
Another unexpected turn of events was Maloka being accused of harassment and mismanagement at the end of 2020. He resigned soon after the allegations were levelled and was replaced by Sibongile Mtyali who was Unathi’s boss at Metro FM. Nkayi and Mtyali did not have the best of relationships at Metro and it is unknown whether that relationship had been repaired when Mtyali became Managing Director at Kaya.
With Maloka out and Mtyali in, Nkayi’s promise of taking over drive seemed to be more elusive. It seems to me that Nkayi started growing unsettled by the fact that someone who is arguably less qualified than her was hosting the drive show and it no longer seemed plausible that she would take over that slot in the near future. I think this is what led to the main event.
I have no interest in spending time on the ‘main event’ but do want to make a comment on it. The public will likely never hear the audio recording of what transpired between Nkayi and Dhlomo. It is not in the best interest of any of the parties involved to release the audio.
Whether we ever get to hear the audio or not, my concern is that it will always be out of context. We might be able to hear the exchange between Nkayi and Dhlomo but we will never be privy to the conversations outside the studio, the things Unathi was promised by former management, the thing she was told about Dhlomo, and the things Dhlomo was told about her.
It is not just about the what was caught on tape, the events before that are just as important in creating context for the main event. The fact that we will never have access to that information to me means we can never fully appreciate the main event.
In an interview, one of Dhlomo’s closest friends, Anele Mdoda mentioned that Dhlomo is not an active radio listener. When you stack up Dhlomo’s relative inexperience with hosting a prime time slot with his disinterest in the radio world and compare that with the wealth of prime time experience Nkayi has, her passion for radio and the promises that may or may not have been made to her, it is not far fetched that she would have been deeply upset at how things had panned out.
I’m sure Dhlomo does not consider himself to have been in any sort of conflict with Nkayi but he has emerged victorious. Although this might be a momentary set back for Nkayi, I fully believe she will bounce back from this. I do think she is done with radio forever. I would be thoroughly surprised if she ever made a return to the medium she loves so much.
