Chair blooper: SABC apologises
2008-10-22 16:46
Johannesburg - The SABC on Wednesday issued a formal apology to Finance Portfolio Committee chair Nhlanhla Nene after his chair collapsed under him during a live interview on SABC2 on Tuesday.
"All necessary precautions are being put in place to avoid a similar incident," said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
"Nene must be applauded for having been a true professional, as he carried on with the interview after a short ad break," he added.
But a clip of the incident which happened during an interview at about 08:30 on Tuesday from the daily Parliamentary review programme, A View from the House has already received hundreds of views on Youtube as well as on local sites like Play and Zoopy.
The clip shows Nene replying to a question from a presenter. There is a crack as a wheel under the chair breaks but Nene continues answering the question until a few moments later he suddenly collapses out of sight behind the studio desk. The camera returns to the flustered presenter.
Kganyago said that the incident was totally unforeseeable and was an accident.
Nene, who has taken the incident in his stride, told News24 earlier he was thankful he had not hurt himself.
He laughed when asked if he would give the SABC a bigger budget for sturdier furniture in the future. "I don't allocate to the SABC," he said.
Colleagues had teased him about it since, while he was asking people not to use the word chair, with which he is commonly addressed, around him.
"I get worried something might happen to me!" he said.
Nene chuckled at the thought of the number of people who hadwatched the live broadcast. "It was quite embarrassing because you know you can imagine when the millions are watching..."