A group of anti-gender based violence and community activists protested outside the office’s of Cape Town radio station Heart FM as allegations of workplace bullying and sexual harassment at station made news this week.

Clarence Ford, a legendary radio presenter in the Cape Town music and jazz community was on Monday taken off air after he revealed incidents of workplace bullying in a Sunday Argus newspaper article. Ford revealed on social media that he was told 40 minutes before he was due to go on air that he was dismissed with immediate effect. Heart FM later published a media statement claiming that Ford has decided to make a “clean break” with the station, even though his contract only comes to an end in February 2022.

The protest was led by Reverend June Dolley-Major, who is now an activist against gender-based violence. Dolley-Major questioned why Rene Redelinghuys, the managing director of Heart FM, would protect a man accused of sexual harassment. She labelled women who protect such me “handmaidens of patriarchy”

Nazier Paulsen, a member of Parliament of the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters), said companies who condone and cover up gender-based violence will be met with the full might of the EFF.

Claudine Coleridge, community activist from Elsies River and a member of the Cape Coloured Congress, said they wanted answers from Rene Redelinghuys and Denver Apollus (Heart Fm’s head of programming) as to why journalist Saya Pierce-Jones was taken off air and questioned whether Pierce-Jones was sexually harassed by a manager and slapped with a gag order.