WeeklySA_AdminOPINION: Rival boards, contested executives and legal battles have pushed Jozi FM deeper into crisis. Those fighting for control risk destroying the very community institution they claim to be protecting….
By Themba Khumalo
Watching a community radio station that has worked for years to earn the trust of its listeners being dragged into a fight over who gets to control it, is deeply disturbing.
That is the situation unfolding at Jozi FM, a station that has, in my view, become one of the best community broadcasters in South Africa.
What should be a vital platform for the people of Soweto is, instead being consumed by a bitter internal struggle in which competing claims to authority, legal manoeuvring and institutional brinkmanship threaten to inflict serious damage on the very station these factions claim to represent.
Jozi FM is not some obscure corporate entity whose internal quarrels can be dismissed as somebody else’s problem. It is woven into the daily life of Soweto, with a relationship with its listeners built over years of broadcasting, community engagement and public trust.
That makes what is happening around 105.8 FM all the more alarming. The people entrusted with protecting the station’s interests appear instead to be placing those interests in the line of fire.
The most telling image may be the simplest one.
Collen Hans, holding the mandate of interim acting CEO, was prevented from entering the Jozi FM premises by an individual apparently claiming to represent management. The Montsho-led board subsequently condemned the action as unlawful, saying it contravened an ICASA Complaints and Compliance Committee directive and a court order governing the station.
Whatever the competing legal arguments, the fact that an interim CEO could be prevented from entering the station tells us how badly the governance crisis has deteriorated.
There is a profound difference between defending an institution and fighting over possession of it. Jozi FM deserves the former…
This is no longer simply a dispute conducted through lawyers’ letters, board resolutions and competing interpretations of authority. The fight has moved from courtrooms and lawyers’ offices to the station itself.
Hans is being denied access while Mpho Mhlongo continues to be recognised as CEO by the faction challenging his dismissal. Rival groups are simultaneously claiming authority over the board supposed to govern the station.
The Montsho-led board says Hans is the duly authorised interim CEO. Mhlongo’s attorneys reject his dismissal and challenge the authority of Montsho and the board that terminated him. They contend that Montsho and the previous board were removed as directors on November 27, 2025, and that a rival board chaired by Mbuyiseni Robert Mpungose was appointed at an elective AGM on February 21, 2026. That faction continues to recognise Mhlongo as CEO and rejects Hans’s appointment.
These are serious competing claims, and ultimately the courts and regulator may have to determine where lawful authority lies.
But there is something that should not require a court order to establish: Jozi FM cannot be allowed to become collateral damage while people entrusted with its governance fight over who gets to control it.
A community radio station cannot function properly when its leadership is contested at every level, the authority of its board is disputed, its chief executive’s position is challenged and the person appointed as interim CEO is allegedly prevented from entering the premises.
At some point, a legal dispute ceases to be an internal inconvenience and becomes an operational threat to the institution itself.
And Jozi FM is far too important to be treated as an inconvenience.
The real asset is public trust
The station has spent years building something that cannot be created by a board resolution or acquired through a lawyer’s letter.
It has built a relationship with the people of Soweto.
Its presenters have become familiar voices in people’s homes and cars. Its programming speaks to the realities of the community it serves. It provides a platform for local concerns, local voices and local culture.
That accumulated trust is an asset far more valuable than any particular position within the organisation.
It is therefore difficult to understand how anyone claiming to act in Jozi FM’s best interests could allow the station to be dragged into this kind of chaos.
A community broadcasting licence is not private property. It is not a financial trough. It is certainly not a personal fiefdom to be defended by whichever faction believes it has the strongest claim to power.
The licence carries a public responsibility. Governance is not an academic matter because regulatory compliance and stable management are essential to the station’s continued operation.
The Montsho-led board has warned that interference with governance and management could place Jozi FM’s broadcasting licence at risk.
That warning should not be dismissed as merely another weapon in this increasingly bitter argument. It should be treated as the alarm bell it is.
Because if this continues, everyone involved risks achieving the ultimate absurdity: winning an argument over control of a station while helping to destroy the institution they fought to control.
Listeners do not care which faction produces the most intimidating letter or which lawyer finds another procedural argument.
They want Jozi FM to function.
They want their station on air, properly managed and able to do the work it has earned their trust to perform.
They should not have to watch a station they regard as their own being consumed by an internal struggle that has reached the point where access to the premises itself has become contested territory.
The station is not the prize
There is a profound difference between defending an institution and fighting over possession of it.
The former requires restraint, accountability and a willingness to put the organisation ahead of personal interests. The latter turns the organisation into a prize.
Jozi FM deserves the former.
Those involved in this dispute should stop behaving as though the station is merely the backdrop to their fight.
It is the thing they are supposed to be protecting.
Every board resolution, legal letter, disciplinary process and executive appointment should ultimately be measured against one question:
Does this strengthen Jozi FM or further destabilise it?
At present, the answer is becoming increasingly uncomfortable.
The station has already done the hard work of establishing itself as a trusted voice in Soweto. It should not now be forced to pay the price for a leadership battle that has spiralled from competing boardroom claims into a physical dispute over who is allowed through the front door.
The competing claims to authority must be resolved through lawful processes. The governance dispute must be brought to an end.
And those entrusted with Jozi FM’s future need to remember something fundamental: the station is bigger than any board, executive, director or faction.
They are temporary custodians of something the community has helped build over many years.
If they genuinely care about Jozi FM, the time has come to stop fighting for control long enough to protect what they are fighting over.
