29 June 2017
Its with great sadness that we announce the death of SABC senior producer of RSG Current Affairs Suna Venter. Venters body was discovered on Thursday morning at her flat in Fairlands.
Venter was 32 years old at the time of her passing. She had recently been diagnosed with a cardiac condition known as stress cardiomyopathy, or Broken Heart Syndrome, believed to be caused by trauma and prolonged periods of unnatural stress.
Venter made headlines last year when she was suspended from the public broadcaster, along with a number of colleagues who would later be known as the SABC 8. The group was suspended after they voiced their concerns about unlawful interference in the newsrooms and illegal editorial policies that were being implemented at the SABC. Specifically, those editorial policies pertaining to the broadcast of violent protests.
They were summarily dismissed, but later reinstated by the Labour Court after their dismissals were found to be wrongful. Despite this victory, and a Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee investigation into the affairs of the SABC, Venter was the victim of continued intimidation, victimisation and death threats.
Over the course of the past year, she received various threatening SMS messages. Her flat was broken into on numerous occasions, the brake cables of her car were cut and her cars tyres were slashed. She was shot at and abducted - tied to a tree at Melville Koppies while the grass around her was set alight. On a separate occasion earlier this year, she was shot in the face with an unknown weapon and received surgery to remove the metal pellets from her face. During the past year, she was assaulted on three various occasions.