South African singer and radio host Unathi Nkayi recently sat down with broadcaster Gareth Cliff in a newly launched show called UnCancelled With Gareth Cliff.
Unathi Nkayi spoke openly about the main reasons why she was fired from Kaya 959 in 2021, after an alleged argument with a colleague.
Uncancelled, launched by Gareth Cliff and Eugene Khoza, was designed to engage and provoke debate.
“The new current affairs and entertainment series will open the floodgates on pent-up views about life without electricity to hilarious human behaviour,” a press release said.
A video of the first episode was released on YouTube on Tuesday.
“There are a lot of things people want to know about you,” Gareth says to Unathi after introducing her on camera. “You haven’t been speaking to anyone in the press recently, but you’ve been picking up your boxing gloves and fighting with a couple of people.”
The two former Idols SA judges first discuss how they found out they would no longer be judges on Idols SA, which is currently in its final season.
“I found out because they fired me,” Gareth says after pointing out that Unathi found out via the media.
Gareth then shifted the conversation asking Unathi what actually happened between her and Kaya 959.
“So you’re suing the pants off of Kaya,” Cliff says to Unathi, to which she responds: “So, I’ve started litigation against Kaya beginning of Feb.”
She recalled how she found out she had been fired while working on music with Prince Kaybee during a ten-day getaway. The pair had booked a house to work from, along with a group of instrumentalists, when she not only got the call but saw the public statement issued by the radio station just minutes after she had been informed about her dismissal.
“Okay, so 2021, they fire me. Ten o’clock in the morning, 10 AM, I got the email. I’m in Gqeberha; I’m in GQ with Prince Kaybee – we hired a holiday house looking over the harbour. He’s like, ‘Let’s make some music’. I’m like, ‘Cool’.”
Unathi says she then informed Prince Kaybee saying that there are some things happening behind the scenes and that she’s been suspended, to which he responded: “It’s okay, I’ll make you forget about it, let’s disappear.”
The singer said her first priority was to tell her family. Unathi first spoke to her mom, who immediately told her daughter to “sue.” She then talked to her father, who phoned entertainment lawyer David Feinberg.
“David calls me, he says, ‘Mom and dad have spoken to me. They’ve told me you don’t want to sue. They are telling me that you are going to sue. So, we’re suing.”
After her contract’s termination, rumours surfaced that Nkayi had been dismissed due to a heated altercation between herself and her former colleague Sizwe Dhlomo.
Unathi also reveals that she decided not to take action against the station for a year, as advised by her father and the family’s ancestral healers.
“So when they fired Sibongile, my dad said, ‘Now you can go,” she added.
The singer revealed that the process of arbitration is costing her six figures and that she had to save to fund the process.
“This past Friday, the Kaya attorney sent my attorneys an email requesting a copy of my employment contract and my mother said ‘yoooo mntanam!(oh my child)’ and my father said ‘jaaa uba fumene! (yes you got them)’ ”
Also see: Unathi Nkayi speaks on her healing journey: “I had hit rock bottom”
