She spent a lot of money on airtime voting in the SABC Song of the Year competition with the hopes of winning a car. Thethiwe Mahlangu could not be happier when she was picked as one of the three winners of a new Kia Picanto in the competition in December 2016. The Mpumalanga based mom thought she would finally stop using taxis. But almost seven years later, Thethiwe has still not received her car and she says the public broadcaster has been giving her a run-around.

LAUGHING STOCK IN THE COMMUNITY

Thethiwe told ZiMoja that she will never forgive the SABC for turning her into a laughing stock in her community of KwaMhlanga. She said a week after she was called to say she was one of the winners, she was invited to an event where all the winners met and were shown their brand-new cars and were paraded on SABC radio stations shows including Morning Live, where she beamed with pride in front of her car, only to be told that she can’t take her prize home. "On that day, we were made to pose with the cars and they made me take pictures and also appear on Morning Live . When we were done, I expected to drive away with my new car, but they told me that I couldn’t. They said I must collect the car at the dealership," she said. But she says she was sent from one dealership to the next and almost seven years later she still doesn’t have her car. "I have never been so humiliated like this in my life. They made me pose for the pictures and everyone from my neighbourhood congratulated me but here I am, years later. I still don’t have a car and I have turned into a joke in my community. My parents even bought a goat and slaughtered it when I won the car to thank my ancestors. Everyone was invited to celebrate but my parents passed away the next year, without even seeing the car," she says.

SPENDING MONEY TO GET HER CAR

She alleges that she lost over R40 000 going to lawyers. "The sad part is that I am the only one who has not received the car from all the three winners in that competition. Everyone else has been given their car. That hurts me even more because it shows that I am not taken seriously by the SABC," she claims. She said what followed was a frustrating journey of going to different dealerships to collect the car but was never allowed to take it because of reasons unknown to her. "They made me go to a different dealership to collect the car but when I got there, I could not take the car home because there were payment issues that the dealership wanted to clear," she adds.

SABC SAYS ITS NOT THEIR FAULT

SABC Media Relations Corporate Affairs and Marketing Manager Vuyo Mthembu said that SABC has publicly communicated its position on the matter and would like to reiterate that the Corporation has met all its contractual obligations pertaining to the partnership it entered into with the promoter for the said competition. "In this regard, it is the promoter that has failed to carry out its contractual obligation of giving a car/prize to the winner of the competition," Mthembu said.