News Channels Cover Mid Term Budget Speech

All South African news channels, with the exception of Business Day TV, carried Nhlanhla Nene's first Mid Term Budget Speech live.

eNCA had business anchor Arabile Gumede stationed in a studio at parliament from where he had a panel breaking down and analysing the budget speech while reporter Paula Chowles provided on the ground reaction from various oposition party members and also ANC members. Notably absent from coverage is senior anchor Andrew Barnes, who is based in Cape Town and usually anchors News Day during those hours. eNCA was the first channel to dip out of rolling cverage at 3:30pm, with analysis to follow during news bulletins throughout the rest of the day. Arabile is also slated to talk to the Minister of Finance during the 4pm hour.

ANN7 Mid Term Budget Panel

ANN7 had breakfast anchor Peter van Onselen co-anchoring with the new primetime business anchor from the Johannesburg studios with one analst in studio. Peter did most of the anchoring despite it being an anchoring duo. They provided mainly analysis of the budget and had the minimum amount of live on the ground coverage from parliament.

SABC News Mid Term Budget Panel

On SABC News, the lunchtime news team (which is a business-centric news bulletin in any case) provided live on the ground coverage from parliament in what I must say is the best studio at parliament: there is decent lighting, decent space and a decent view. They were joined by various in studio analysts and also had a few reporters on the ground getting reaction from MP's as they leave parliament (and look for reports as some of them appeared on all three news channels). Their coverage was also simulcast on SABC2.

CNBC Africa also hosted a budget panel from their studio in Johannesburg.