Gareth Cliff: ‘Idols has never been my job’
Radio personality Gareth Cliff has broken his silence in an open letter, after he was let go as one of the judges of talent show "Idols SA".
On Saturday, Idols parted ways with Cliff after many labelled him a racist, following the social media comment he made over the Penny Sparrow saga.
In a tweet that sparked a lot of controversy, Cliff wrote “people don’t understand free speech at all” after Sparrow had called black beachgoers at Durban’s beaches, monkeys.
Read some of Cliff’s open letter below:
How has your 2016 been so far? Sadly, in South Africa, instead of celebratory fireworks to launch the year, we have witnessed social media explosions on a monumental scale – many of which could have led to constructive engagement, but spiralled into witch hunts and lost opportunities.
This weekend #SparrowGate very quickly escalated into #IdolsGate after M-Net made an announcement in the early hours of Saturday morning that I would no longer be part of the judging panel. This came after demands on Twitter to have me removed as well as Mzansi subscribers apparently threatening to boycott. Understandably, this is scary for a commercial entity.
Like everyone else, it would seem that the M-Net executive (or whoever the powers may be) yielded in the middle of this frenzy. In my experience, it usually takes around seven days for these fires to burn out so the announcement managed to catch the tale end of this one. The M-Net PR machine may have been up at midnight crafting their announcement, but while I woke up to calls on Saturday morning from various newspapers for comment, I wasn’t going to let this eat into my weekend. I will reserve my right to respond at the appropriate time.
This is not about Idols or me. Idols is a reality TV talent show with good and bad singers to get ratings. I’ve been a judge for eleven seasons and I’ve loved the journey… But Idols has never been my job. It’s an extramural activity and anyone who listens to my show would know that I have felt my time was up a good couple of years ago. I may have played a role in finding talent, but not in developing it as far as this show goes – I just have to arrive, listen and comment. Then I go home. When it’s over, it’s over! It’s entertainment.
Be that as it may, it took me back to October 2010 when I wrote a letter to the Government, which went viral. Why did I continue voting for the ANC, you may ask? This is why…
Below, see M-net’s statement on why they decided to remove Cliff from the judging panel:
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