Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis was the guest of the Lotters family, which Shafiek Sedick was erroneously reported to have attended. [Picture: Geordin Hill-Lewis / Facebook]
Voice of the Cape has not silenced the mic of presenter Shafiek Sedick, who was the centre of a social media storm for an Eid lunch he did not attend. This was confirmed by station manager Goolam Fakier on Wednesday.
In a post on Facebook, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis extended his gratitude to the Lotters family for hosting him for lunch on the day of Eid, on Thursday.
Later edited to remove Sedick’s name, Hill-Lewis wrote: “Lovely Eid lunch with Aunty Saieda Lotters & Shafiek Sedick who are serving the Wynberg community tirelessly through their feeding programmes. Shukran, die kos was regtig heerlik. (sic)”
Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia, Fakier dismissed earlier reports that Sedick was pulled off the air for entertaining the Democratic Alliance (DA)-affiliated mayor.
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Misunderstanding
Clarifying the matter, Fakier said the station’s own investigation found that Sedick did not attend the lunch. Instead, he was occupied with volunteer work that day.
“Nowhere in the actual post of Geordin Hill-Lewis’ did he mention the name ‘VOC presenter Shafiek Sedick’. He just said thank you to the Lotters family and to Shafiek Sedick for hosting me. That is it,” said Fakier.
He charged that those who circulated a post asserting that a VOC presenter entertained the mayor – seen as problematic due to the party’s stance on the Gaza Genocide – did so with “pure ill-intent”.
“We accepted Shafiek’s explanation. Shafiek has not been dismissed, Shafiek has not been suspended. We had a meeting with Shafiek on Monday and it was mutually agreed for Shafiek just to take some time off from the airwaves, just to recoup.”
