Media powerhouse Dineo Ranaka launched a scathing, no-holds-barred counter attack against Sol Phenduka’s official apology video.
The explosive showdown kicked off after the Podcast and Chill co-host took to social media to film a direct piece-to-camera, expressing deep remorse for highly insensitive jokes made during a previous episode regarding the disappearance of Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, a 38-year-old runner whose subsequent murder shocked the nation.
However, the moment Phenduka dropped his apology video, a furious Ranaka immediately fired back with a video reply of her own completely rejecting his defense, labelling the remarks as “bottom of the barrel filth,” and igniting a massive public debate.
As public outrage reached a boiling point, Sol Phenduka took to social media to issue what he hoped would be a firesubduing apology, admitting that making light of a missing woman’s situation was distasteful and a deeply unfortunate pun.
Taking to social media in a fiery, unfiltered video response, Ranaka completely dismantled the apology, labelling her former colleagues as filth and utterly disgusting. Refusing to let the platform sweep the matter under the rug, she pointedly noted that both hosts are fathers who should know better than to use a missing woman’s trauma for digital currency.
In a quote that has quickly gone viral across South African social media, a furious Ranaka stated that a reactive apology does absolutely nothing to reverse reality, declaring that they don’t care about the apology because the victim is still dead.
She further claimed that if the apology could resuscitate her, only then would the public care to listen. Ranaka went on to accuse the Podcast and Chill platform of consistently exploiting Gender-Based Violence and the pain of women solely to drive up views, ratings, and engagement metrics. According to her, the network’s remorse is entirely hollow and purely driven by a desperate attempt at corporate damage control rather than genuine reflection.
The explosive clash has completely split the internet into warring factions. While a large portion of the public and advocacy groups are praising Ranaka for using her massive platform to demand real, structural accountability, others have stepped up to defend Sol Phenduka.
His defenders argue that his immediate ownership of the mistake was rare for the industry and that Ranaka’s rage, while understandable in the context of South Africa’s ongoing GBV crisis, was overly aggressive. As the dust refuses to settle, one thing is abundantly clear, the bridge between Dineo Ranaka and the Chillers network has been burned to the ground.