As the Election Date Draws Nearer, ANN7 Channels ramp Up Political Coverage

As the May 7th Election Date Draws Nearer, eNCA, ANN7 and SABC News are all pushing their political coverage into overdrive.

On ANN7, as previously reported, they have sent out 9 teams across the country to get the 'man on the ground' feel on issues like service delivery and also conducted a first-of-its-kind election poll in South Africa. Other than two hours dedicated everyday to this program, election and political coverage is also heavily featured in other programs.

 On Sundays, former eNCA political analyst, now at ANN7, Hajra Omarjee anchors Political Edge at 8pm, scheduled for 30 min. However, the edition on Sunday, 13th April ran nearly an hour overtime as she had a debate that drew senior leaders from the DA, ANC, Cosatu and the EFF.

Not only did she have to moderate the leaders that often spoke over each other, she had to control an often rowdy crowd, often resorting to shouting.

Overall, it was a really well done debate done from their broadcast facility, done by one anchor with a not so quiet panel. I must say it was much better than eNCA show The Big Debate that takes a somewhat similar approach, but despite that show not being live, it has a lot of unnecessary  comments on it (I am not against letting 'normal' people having their views aired, I just feel they should be constructive and not repeitive, especially on a show that has the luxury of time to edit the show before airing)

(If you wondering, the news bulletin that had to immediately follow this broadcast was done from a separate green screen facility)

Despite being the least watched of the local news channels, ANN7 is surprisingly able to constantly draw big name guests to all of their shows, especially the well done ANN7 Prime with Chantal Rutter Dros where they have a guest with every story. At the end of Sunday's broadcast, Hajra mentioned she was so humbled that they were able to get the caliber of guests that they did, which was rather nice of her to say.