By Tendai Mukaro
The sparing of seasoned Zimbabwean journalist Peter Ndoro who is employed by the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) during retrenchments carried out by the company despite demonstrations by some South Africans blaming foreigners for taking their jobs has sparked verbal war on twitter.
SABC last month retrenched over 600 employees after giving them a nine-months’ notice
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Initially the public broadcaster had said 400 employees would be retrenched.
The retrenchments have led to the launch of groupings under the banner #southafricansfirst.
These groups are advocating for the retrenchment Ndoro arguing there were unemployed Journalism graduates in South Africa who could easily replace Ndoro as television presentation was not a critical skill in South Africa.
“Our unemployed Journalism graduates must go replace these Zimbabweans at SABC reading news since it is not a scarce skill,” read one of the tweets
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Some South Africans have expressed their frustrations on social media with some promising not to pay television licences.
Shokwakhe wrote, “TV presenting is not a critical skill in SA, what is so special about Peter Ndoro?”
Another tweet from Kgosi read, “I will never pay my tv license until those two foreigners have been retrenched and deported”.
However, some South African have criticised the hashtag and said it was driven by xenophobia and afrophobia which hindered African progress.
Ackloyd wrote, “Xenophobia and Afrophobia is the reason why all the other races except for blacks will continue to get rich.
“You have a Chinese in the Parliament yet no one is saying anything about it.
“Wake up!”.
Another tweet from Nwayitelo read, “What we should be asking is what criteria was used by SABC to retrench and take it from there”.
Superior logic tweeted, “He (Ndoro) has education and skills that you don’t have”.
CellularZA wrote, “Tendai Mtawarira played in the rugby world cup for South Africa why did you not have this mentality by that time?”.
Another tweet from Mbuyiseni Ndlozi read, “The #tag is a fools’ hashtag driven by xenophobia and Afrophobia, you can’t celebrate Trevor Noah who is in United States based daily show and demand the retrenchment of Peter Ndoro simply because he is a Zimbabwean”.
