SABC2 Dumps Deutsche Welle From Overnights, Opting For SABC News Channel Simulcast Instead

In December 2014, SABC 2 added Deutsche Welle, the German public broadcaster's news service, to its overnight schedule to replace the stale reruns of old SABC News shows that occupied SABC2's graveyard hours before then.

Now, a year later, Deutsche Welle is gone from the SABC2 schedule with SABC2 now opting to simulcast the feed of the SABC News Channel overnight instead.

This means that South African's who do not have DStv now get to see the full flagship bulletin of the public broadcaster's main news bulletin, Prime Time News, in full from midnight (i.e. six hours old news) with Your World following thereafter.

I am surprised this move did not come sooner, actually. Remember when the SABC controversially decided to not renew Siki Mgabadeli's Big Debate programme (which has since moved to eTV)? The reason for the cancellation was that the SABC did not show any news programming that was not under their editorial control. Yet with Deutsche Welle they turned over a five and a half hour block of programming to a germain news broadcaster.

Overall, this is a step in the right direction in providing ordinary South Africans without pay tv access to more in depth news programming originating domestically.

Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin once again ringing in the New Year on CNNi

Anderson Cooper, host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (Tuesday to Saturday morning at 3am), and comedienne, Kathy Griffin, will once again ring in the new year in the US's Eastern Time Zone, live from Time Square.

Last year the show ran for the longest time in its history, kicking off at 9pm (US Eastern Time) and averaged just over 2 million viewers. Back then, they joked on air as they had no idea how they would fill all the extra time. Well these jokes were not heard by CNN's higher ups as the show will now start yet another hour earlier at 8pm US Eastern Time and run to 12:30am New Years Day (That is, 3am South African Time on Friday morning to 7:30am). The major US New Year's Eve Show, Dick Clarke's New Years Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest (that is the actual long name), also starts at 8pm US Time, but the difference is they are stacking the show with 38 musical performances whilst Cooper and Griffin will have none.

I doubt filling the time for these two is that hard though. They are real life friends and that chemistry shines through the broadcast, especially Cooper's reaction to Griffin's often too edgy jokes. The big joke last year was when Griffin dyed Cooper's hair on air without him knowing.

They will not be alone, however. Richard Quest will provide coverage from inside the crowd in Time Square, whilst Poppy Harlow will be all the way in Rio. Randi Kaye will provide coverage from Memphis and Gary Tuchman in Hershey, Pa.

Cooper and Griffin sign off from their marathon broadcast at 12:30am (7:30am here in SA) when Brooke Baldwin and Don Lemon (host of CNN Tonight, Tuesday through Saturday morning at 4am) will take over the broadcast from New Orleans to usher in the New Year in the US's Central Time Zone.

News On Christmas

Christmas time is a time for family and friends but the news cycle continues, no matter how slow it goes.

On Christmas 2014, CNN (DStv 401) had a mere 10 hours of live news on their schedule. When you thought it could not go any lower, it does indeed with them only having a mere 6 hours of live content on Christmas day this year (a quarter of a day), with the rest of the time filled with magazine shows, review shows and two airings of the CNN Heores awards in its entirety [Amount of hours measured using 24 hours in the US Eastern Time zone where the channel is head quartered].

Zain Asher, who has been on air this entire week worked extra hours in addition to her own and so did business anchor, Richard Quest, who did quite a few editions of CNN Newsroom. Quest, who has been on air every Christmas for the last few years (to allow those that celebrate the day to do so and to have a nice day filled with feel feel good stories) even has a Christmas tradition of his own whereby he cracks Christmas crackers on air with the behind the scenes personalities, seen below:



On eNCA, the Christmas schedule once again started an hour later, allowing the anchors to sleep in an extra hour, this year being Gareth Edwards who got to do breakfast show duty this year. Gareth had been anchoring News Night in place for Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti who deserve the award for easiest schedule in news considering Gareth fills in for both of them most Fridays and now the whole festive week. Thulasizwe Simelane stood in for Cathy Mohlahlana and Joanne Josephs from 9am onward. Florence Letoaba did News Night

ANN7 had weekend Vuka Africa anchor Liezle Wilson anchoring on Christmas and, as they did last year, broadcast a live Church sermon to commemorate the day. In prime time Chante Janjies anchored, which she really did not want to do, as she tweeted. She ended after ANN7 Prime and the channel just rebroadcast her same news bulletin for the rest of the evening.

Morning Live, which was broadcast on SABC News Channel only and not SABC 2 had some live crossings to usual newsreader Ayanda Allie Paine who was capturin the festive spirit from outside the studio whilst Vaylen Kirtley held things down in the studio. The channel, once again, had the most (live) news on Christmas.

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On Christmas Eve, both eNCA and CNNi broke with tradition and chose not to cover the Pope's Christmas Eve Mass at all, even though they had in previous years. This year, the broadcast also made the jump from SABC3 to SABC2, the public broadcaster's channel featuring the most festive content. ANN7 also broadcast a large portion of the event live, but did so using a broadband connection which obviously is not even close to being as good as a high quality satellite connection as SABC2 had.

Which South African News Channel Has The Biggest presence Online?

With the world moving increasingly online to stay abreast with the latest news, South African news broadcasters too are spending more to put out a quality online product. But which news channel has the biggest presence online?

5. Business Day TV 
Business Day TV's site ranks as the 9 352nd most popular site in South Africa. It is also important to note that Business Day TV's website is totally separate from the main Business Day website, which is quite popular in its own right (Business Day is the name of a newspaper, printed on paper, for you online only guys).
When it comes to audience engagement, BDTV does quite well. Its bounce rate, representing the amount of peope that leave the website after visiting only one page is 50%, lower than the rest of the websites listed here. The average visitor visits 2 pages per visit on the site and spends approximately 2 minutes and 14 seconds on the site. Just under 80 % of visitors to the site are visiting from South Africa.
The four most searched for terms directing visitors to the site are all related to its name: BDTV, "Business Day Live," " Business Day" and, quite creatively, "Businessday."

Twitter Followers:15 500+
Facebook Likes: 87 (On official page, as linked by their official website)

4. ANN7
ANN7 still has a long way to go to reach the top of the news mountain. The channel has the 5 513th most popular site in South Africa. The organisation should really be putting effort into its website if it wants to attract visitors. Articles are poorly written (Sometimes one whole article is one long paragraph), certain sections terribly maintained and some sections just seem as if it contains data that was there since the website was developed.

When it comes to bounce rate, which measures the percentage of viewers who leave the site after just one page, the channel actually does quite well with 61.8%, lower than that of the other general news channels. Average pageviews per visitor is also relatively good at 1.9 pages. Hoever, viewsers spend a relatively little amount of time on the site, with the average visitor staying for about 2 minutes and 2 seconds. The channel's online audience is also the most South Africa, at 90.7%  of visitors coming from SA.
The most searched for term that directed to ann7.com was "African News Network" with the next two most popular positions being held by phrases related to the channel's South African of the Year Awards.

Twitter Followers: 51 900+
Facebook Likes: 13 809

3. CNBC Africa
CNBCAfrica.com is the 3942nd most popular site in South Africa (Its rank in Nigeria is even better in the 3200s). It does however boast quite an educated audience base, with a large percentage not only attending university but actually completing graduate school.
When it comes to engagement, the site is doing not so well. It has the highest bounce rate at 72.6%, with a daily page views per visitor of 1.42.
Just under 35% of the site's viewers are from South Africa while 29% come from Nigeria, followed by India and the US.

Twitter Followers: 93 000+
Facebook Likes: 50424 (Official page only)

2. SABC News
The SABC's news portal ranks as the 345th most popular site in the country. This one site contains news aggregated from the organsations various divisions including regional radio stations.
85.2% of the website's visitors come from South Africa followed by (what I think is rather odd) India, then the US and the UK.
When it comes to visitor engagement, the site sees just red. Its bounce rate of 69% is 19% above its preceding three month average, its daily page view per visitor of 1.47 is 6.4% below its average and the average visitor stays for 19% less time at 1 minute 53 seconds.
The search term sending the most traffic to the site is ' renamo,' the Mozambican National Resistance.
Twitter Followers: 560 000+(@SABCNewsOnline only)
Facebook Likes: 214 151

1. eNCA

Being the most watched news channel on the DStv platform translated to having the most visitors online for eNCA. enca.com is the 122nd most popular site in all of South Africa and 18 235th in the world. Though eighteen thousand is a large amount, this position is actually an improvement of 6700 positions as compared to the prior three months.

When it comes to engagement on the website, eNCA's bounce rate, which measures how many visitors leave the site after viewing only one page is 62.1% (slighty worse than ANN7's and much better than SABC News'), with the average daily visitor viewing 1.78 pages per visit. The average visitor also spends 2 minutes and 55 seconds on the site, the longest time of the bigger channels.
enca.com's visitors are also 'less South African,' with 84.7% of its visitors coming from South Africa. Nigeria, the US, India and the UK are respectively the next most popular countries to visit the site.
The most popular phrase searched for that sent viewers to enca.com was "new human ancestor," referencing the Homo Naledi discovery earlier this year. (Interestingly, more visitors directed to enca.com comes from google.com and NOT from google.co.za)

Twitter Followers: 740 000+
Facebook Likes: 360 213+
[Having the most viewers does not necessarily mean having the largest online presence though. CNN has the most popular website among US broadcasters by a large margin, yet is the third most watched pay tv news channel there]

The data above is courtesy of Alexa Competitive Intellegence.

News Channels Unprepared As Zuma Unexpectedly Appoints a New, New Minister of Finance

With the extremely unexpected news this past Sunday of Pravin Gordhan replacing the new Minister of Finance, South African news channels showed their lack of staff on a Sunday to cover the breaking news.

When the news broke, eNCA did what they do with all their major breaking news stories: move the anchor over to the side of the studio used for News Night. eNCA had Thulasizwe Similane Skypping live from the highly unexpected presser and displaying eNCA's depth of talent at a time when news channels are understaffed at the weekend. However, soon they were back to their standard format, sports news and all.
Instead of going to a taped show at 10:30pm, eNCA added another live news bulletin to the schedule which included the first interview with DA leader Mmusi Maimane.

SABC news Channel had a reporter live from the event. However, not too long after the announcement, the channel was back to doing what they seem to do most days, showing social events, this time the NAFCOC dinner.

ANN7 has all sort of weird characters anchoring on the channel on the weekends, like prospective actors and celebrities and reality stars. So, at 10:20pm, ANN7 did something I have never seen before in all of my years of watching live news: they had a show anchored BY TELEPHONE when ANN7 Assignment's Editor,Cecilia Russel, replaced the highly inexperienced weekend anchor to anchor the channel's coverage of the breaking news. Her first guest was ANN7's new business editor, Stevie B, who was also on the phone, mind you. I do not like the sound of one person on a news broadcast speaking on the telephone, but to have both people on the screen doing a call in just does not sound nice.

Though the news channels showed strain with their lack of staff on a Sunday night for this kind of news, the business news channels were even worse. In fact, Business Day TV remained offline whilst CNBC Africa continued with their taped content, not even putting an on screen advisory on the screen.

ANN7 Launches New Prime Time Business Show

ANN7 this past Monday November 30th launched a new daily business news show, called BizSense.

The show airs weekdays at 8pm and is anchored by KayaFM's business news DJ, Stevie B.

Airing at 8pm also means that the excellent ANN7 Prime, anchored by Sebenzile Nkambule, loses television time.

ANN7 now joins the other news channels with daily business reports, eNCA has Moneyline, anchored by Siki Mgabadeli and airs at 8:30pm while SABC News Channel has Business Report, which is anchored by Francis Herd and airs at 6pm.

The show has promised to differentiate itself from the competitors by focusing on the consumer, in other words, exactly what their competitors are promising.

The channel had not programming advisory issued ahead of time, even though, quite strangely, they actually have a marketing department. I wonder what they have ever done.

I also do not get the whole purpose of starting a business news show on November 30th, the start of the festive season when the corporate world tends to cool down and be less newsworthy.

BizSense is, of course, not ANN7's first attempt at a daily business news show. Previously, they had Rands and Sense, which was anchored by Nastassia Arendse by what quietly removed from the schedule when she left the channel. Not bringing back the Rands and Sense brand is a smart move, even though it has been an ANN7 brand since inception, as SABC2 has a show with the same name on their schedule.

On a side note, I was reading Nastassia's Twitter feed a while ago and when asked if she missed television, she echoed what so many others said, no, they do not miss the egos at all.

BizSense's first guest was Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, and the main revelation of the first edition was that the earlier you book your fight or accommodation, the cheaper it is. I kid you not.

eNCA Reluctant to Pay to Broadcast Miners Shot Down

This past weekend, South African documentary, Miners Shot Down, won big at the International Emmy Awards and buzz around the documentary film increased again, fueled by the fact that no South African broadcaster wanted to broadcast the documentary.

The film was made available for free viewing online for those who are curious about the film and now South African broadcaster, eNCA, also  wants to broadcast the film even though it did not want to earlier this year.

Problem is, the channel refuses to pay to air the documentary, saying the producer knows where to drop off a free copy of the film and they will broadcast it.

Yes, they refuse to pay a producer for his now award winning work.

The film was shown on Al Jazeera English earlier this year and a few community channels, but this has always been out of the reach of most South Africans.

COSATU Names ANN7 the Worst Place to Work

South Africa's largest trade union has named news channel ANN7 (DStv405) the worst place to work in South Africa.

I do not see how to actually take this seriously because if given the option to work in a mine or a factory (both of which exploit unskilled workers) or ANN7, I sure as hell will not go into a mine.

News sites reporting on this are citing past things like the Magaqa case to generalise the whole organisation in addition to implying that Gladys Sithole and Nzinga Qunta earlier this year left the channel due to bad working conditions. If they did their homework, they would know Sithole left due to a promotion she was offered at HotFM and Qunta left because she could not balance studying in Pretoria with being a prime time anchor in Midrand (though it would have been amazing having a student as a news anchor during the protests earlier this year).

COSATU also sayis workers at ANN7 are being 'exploited,' which may or may not be the case considering the channel's ability to attract talent away from other news channels. The money must be good.

I am not saying ANN7 is not the worst workplace to be in, as I have never been there to see for myself, but I think a Trade Union like COSATU should be focusing on lobbying for better work conditions for society's most vulnerable workers, the unskilled, underpaid and overworked sector of the workforce which they seem to be ignoring here.

RATINGS: Which News Channels Were the Most Watched for the Month Of October in South Africa?

Courtesy once again of Patrick Conroy, we now have yet another glimpse into the world of which news channel is watched the most in South Africa and DStv.

Business Channels First:
CNBC Africa has once again overtaken Business Day TV as the most watched Business News channel in the country (1.68% compared to 0.52%). During the month of October, CNBC Africa aired the 3rd Republican Debate, though it did not send out programming advisories before hand. October also brought with it the Mid Term Budget Speech on the 21st of the month with the channel providing wall to wall coverage of the speech while Business Day TV was showing repeat content.
Compared to September, CNBC Africa is up 16% while Business Day TV's ratings went down double digits, month on month.

International News Channels next and in a month filled with US Politics news and unrest in the Middle East, CNN remains in first place, though its 4.04% share is down from the 5.69% in the prior month when it had a Democrat Primary Debate on its schedule which aired live and repeated in prime time.
They are followed by Al Jazeera English and BBC World News. Combined, one in ten viewers who watched a news channel in South Africa opted to watch an international one.

Now things get interesting...
Before I continue, I want to just put a bit of context into the Month of October 2015 in South African news with a single hashtag: #FeesMustFall. Yip, that happened during October and the graph above is a perfect indicator of which channel South Africans prefer when deciding where to turn for major domestic breaking news issues.

Firstly, ANN7. The downside: In a month with a major breaking news story in South Africa that developed over a number of days, if not weeks, to which the channel dedicated a large deal of resources, Sky News, a British news channel, was watched by more South Africans than a South African news channel.  More so, the channel also aired the South African of the Year Awards during October, an event that was trending on top of Twitter's list for most of that evening.
The upside? The channel's ratings were up 14% compared to September of this year, which is a large margin.
At this point, something has got to give at the channel. They have certain bright spots, for example the in depth analysis on ANN7 Prime and the quality of GameOn! is something often spoke about, but the rest of the channel's lineup need to see a step up in quality to remain relevant.
What's more, Sky News is available on DStv Premium and Extra only whereas ANN7 is available on absolutely all DStv bouquets including the R39 Easy View as well as Commercial packages.

In the same news climate as the above, SABC News saw their ratings decrease by just over 7% during October 2015. The channel's coverage, or lack thereof, of of the #FeesMustFall movement has been widely criticized and the South African public has made their voices heard by tuning out.

With absolutely spectacular coverage of the movement, eNCA remains more than comfortable at the top of the news mountain on DStv. The audience share was up a whopping 15%  compared to September, proving that quality coverage indeed leads to quantity in terms of viewership figures. The channel also trended on Twitter alongside #FreesMustFall and traffic to their website was up during the month of October.





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With breaking news of terror attacks coming out of Paris this past Friday night, November 13th, South African news channel, ANN7 (DStv 405), decided to carry the live feed of French news broadcaster, France24 for hours on end on Saturday.

France24, which is an international news channel based in France, is a free to air news channel in most countries and is available on South Afria's smaller paytv platform, StarSat.

It is not uncommon for news channels to carry the feed of another news channel for breaking news coverage. For example, CNN (DStv 401) frequently carries the feed of CNNUS during breaking news events, or carries eNCA's feed for breaking news events in South Africa (which happens rarely).

However, the problem with one channel carrying another's feed on theirs is that you now have two sets of graphics on screen, which becomes messy for viewers. In the above you can see the France24 graphics under the areafy big ANN7 graphics.

Carrying France24's feed is also a very safe bet by ANN7 on a Saturday when most of the channel's anchor lineup consists of models and aspiring actors, not journalists, who probably does not have the skills required to carry a breaking news broadcast like this that requires a firm grasp of the dynamics of terrorism. (Don't look for ANN7's weekend anchors at a journalism awards show soon, you will instead find them on a red carpet somewhere, or on Big Brother, or on BET)

The simulcast also replaces the channel's taped programming that would have aired. In contrast, both SABC News Channel and eNCA are carrying taped shows like eShibobo and Health Talk while all other news channels, including ANN7 now, are providing rolling coverage from Paris.

[Not a diss to anyone at ANN7, but this broadcast was the best quality broadcast I have ever seen on ANN7]

eNCA's Carmen Reddy Shot At Home

eNCA sports anchor, Carmen Reddy (who is a DJ at 5FM as well) was shot and wounded in her home in Centurion last night, November 11th.

This was a result of an attempted armed robbery of the house where she was celebrating the festival of Diwali along with two colleagues. The fireworks reportedly blocked out the screams coming from the house.

 The bullet was lodged in her shoulder.

eNCA's outgoing head of news, Ben Said, said, "She is doing well but is in hospital receiving surgery to have the bullet removed. She will make a full recovery.”

ANN7 Redesigns Website

ANN7 (DStv 405) has redesigned their website, which can be found at ann7.com.

The new design is in line with modern trends in web design: clean and (largely) simple. It has also removed certain subsections that had few articles published in them and removed links to information and videos about stale content.

The new look is also inline with the channels recent on air refresh.

With all the changes, some things remain the same, like having the ability to live stream the video feed of the channel, continuing to be the only South African channel to make their video feed available online for free (SABC News, which is supposed to be a public broadcaster, has their live video stream available only to DStv Premium subscribers).

Keeping all things Gupta, the design was done by Sahara Systems.

CNN and MTN Launch New Africa-Centric Mobile App

CNN, the world's news leader, and MTN, the biggest cellphone network on the continent, have today announced plans to launch a new app together called "Africa View."

The app is only one part of a new, larger deal between the two organisations, which also covers sponsorships, advertising and also other digital components, to be revealed at a later date.

The ‘Africa View’ app curates CNN’s extensive Africa content, including the network’s ‘Africa View’ weekly infographic content (which airs during commericals), providing background and context to trends, figures and initiatives shaping the African continent. Furthermore, it will feature content from CNN's African shows, "Inside Africa" and "Marketplace Africa." Being a CNN app, "Africa View" will of course also feature the latest breaking news and analysis from across the continent pushed to subscribers'  phones.

The content of the app is said to be 'editorially independent,' (whatever that means in this case: independent from MTN? CNN? Some other organisation) and will feature prominent advertising from MTN.

MTN has been a part of the Africa View programme since February this year, when it started sponsoring the Africa View Segments that air during Connect the World.

Features of the Africa View app include:
Latest Africa news and headlines
Weekly updates of ‘Africa View’ segment content
Premium content of CNN International’s Africa features shows ‘Inside Africa’ and ‘CNN Marketplace Africa’
Customised push notifications
Ability to save favourite stories and continue reading offline (which comes in handy in some locations where coverage is patchy)

The app is initially available for Apple devices and Android devices, and can also be found in the MTN Play Store.

Ben Said Out at eNews

eNCA last week announcd that longtime Group News Editor, Ben Said, was leaving the organisation. 

Said has been part of the eTV family since 2000, helping to start the channel's news division that started simply as a thirty minute daily news bulletin (eNews Prime Time), and has since gone on to grow into things like the breakfast show, Sunrise, the zulu news bulletin on eKasi+, the Afrikaans bulletin on Kyknet and, of course, South Africa's most watched news channel, eNCA, along with its successful website.

He started out as a reporter, before climbing up the ranks to senior reporter, covering major stories like the election of the US's first black president, Barack Obama, from Washington D.C. Eventually, he was seen on air less frequently as he continued to ascend to the position of Group News Editor.

"After more than 15 years, I will leave with much sadness but also pride that I have played a role in the growth of Africa's finest news channel. Indeed I believe that eNCA ranks as one of the world's greatest regional news channels and is a credit to South Africa," said Said (oh funny) in a statement released last week. 

Th next step of Said's journy takes him to Turkey, where he joins that state' s public broadcaster's new international news channel, TRT World. [I have no idea why someone will leave an established and successful independent news organisation to join a state broadcaster]

Ben Said's last day with eNCA will be 25th December 2015. 

eNCA, SABC News Broadcast Vans Damaged During Protests at Union Buildings

As Fees Must Fall protests at the Union Building became violent today, Outside Broadcast Vans of both eNCA and SABC News were damaged and reporters caught between police and protesters.

The eNCA camera used by Iman Rappetti was also damaged, with its lens being cracked as it continued to provide live pictures to viewers. Throughout the day, Iman and her cameraman have consistently had close calls when rocks were thrown by protestors, with the cameraman being hit.

One SAC news team on the scene felt the situation for them had become too dangerous as threats had been made directly to them, choosing to move away from the Union Buildings and reports from a safe distance.Reporters , like Chriselda Lewis, have found themselves running for cover from not only rocks from students, but teargas as well.

Though no ANN7 team had been threatened physically, the channel drew criticism on social media when they became the only news organisation to link today's violence to the EFF, with Tweeters saying that this is a result of the ANN7-Gupta connection.
 

Mid Term Budget Coverage Amid Student Protests

The SABC News Channel,  which has dedicated much less airtime to the student protests compared to the other news channels, covered the middterm budget from parliament as if there was no other big news happening in the country at the same time. Business anchor, Francis Herd, anchored coverage from the SABC's studio at parliament. Having a business news anchor and not a general news anchor at parliament also indicates the channel had no intention of shifting away from budget coverage to protest coverage. However, Francis did briefly mention the protests.  The SABC's budget buildup and coverage was simulcast on SABC3 from the 1pm hour, then SABC2 for the next 2 hours.

When it became clear that the happenings outside parliament would be affecting what goes on inside, the SABC decided to add a bit more focus to what was going on outside.

ANN7 showed scenes of student protesters outside parliament

On ANN7, it was as if the Midterm Budget speech was just another location of protests, i.e. only covering parliament from perspective of protesting students and not Minister Nene's speech. They continued with wall to wall coverage of the protests throughout the day. Kevin Brandt was situated outside parliament. The channel went live to parliament at 2pm, with no actual buildup to the speech. They added a video box with scenes outside parliament at about 2:20pm.

eNCA tried to find a common ground, covering the budget speech as normal as possible, with Andrew Barnes at parliament as usual, but not in the usual glass studio they have. He was instead among the protestors getting an on the ground feeling among the protestors. Throughout coverage of the proceedings, eNCA had a video box on screen showing live pictures from outside parliament.

CNBC Africa's prebudget panel

CNBC Africa covered the budget speech live, hosting both a preview and review panel on each side of the speech.

Like last year, Business Day TV did not provide any live coverage of the Mid Term Budget Speech.

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At 2:43pm, Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, finally [tried to] started speaking on the budget, but this was followed by a "fees must fall" chant.

2:47pm: The EFF's Ministers in Parliament were escorted out of the National Assembly

2:47pm Students have broken through the entrance of parliament. eNCA's Lester Kiewit is only reporter live on the scene covering this

2:49 Minister Nene continues speech. eNCA shows Minister in small block while allowing the scenes  outside parliament to play out with full audio.

SABC News split screen of Minister Nene and student protestors

2:53 Stun grenades go off outside parliament as Minister continues to speak
SABC News goes split screen with Minister in parliament. ANN7 completely removes small video box from happenings outside parliament


3:07pm Not one local news channel (except CNBC Africa) is providing major coverage of the midterm budget speech anymore

2:55 ANN7 Cut away from budget speech completely, covering protests outside instead. Kevin Brandt is calling in

3:02pm Andrew barnes notes he has never seen this big of a crowd attracted to a midterm budget speech.

3:10pm Gates of parliament are closed with students now locked out

Business anchor, Francis Herd, has been taken off the air of the SABC News Channel with their coverage being shifted to their studio in Johannesburg, anchored by Anita
Nomawethu Solwandle is reporting live via phone on SABC News Channel

3:31pm eNCA becomes first major news channel to return to proceedings in parliament
3:34pm Minister Nene finishes his speech, which was barely seen by viewers other than those wathcing on CNBC Africa. MP's are advised to go to their offices after parliament session ends until they advised to 'leave safely'

3:35pm MMusi Maimane requests the President and Minister Nzimande go address the people outside

3:36pm House adjurns fo the day (I have no idea what was said in the budget speech)

After budget speech, SABC News Channel tries to do classical post budget tradition of getting reaction from Ministers in Parliament, and CNBC Africa is analysing the budget.
eNCA and ANN7 focusing solely on the riots.

2015 South African of the Year Awards Winners

The South African of the Year Awards took place this past Saturday, October 17th and were broadcast live on ANN7. Below are the winners in each of the categories:

Young Person of the Year
Kgomotso Pooe

Campaign of the Year
Nedbank Ke Yona

Business Leader of the Year
Jabu Mabuza

Conservationist of the Year
 Fundisile Mketeni (CEO SA National Parks)

Sportsperson of the Year
AB de Villiers

Lifetime Achievement Award
Hugh Masakela (Whose name was spelt wrong on the cheque)

Trendsetting Celebrity of the Year

Cassper Nyovest
[Other nominees included AKA, Jonathan Boynton-Lee, Nandi Mngoma,  Nomzamo Mbatha, Terry Pheto, The Soil]

Spirit of Humanity Award


Sibusiso Leope Education Foundation (DJ Sbu)
[Other Nominees included Creseldah Ndlovu, Jordan Van Der Walt, Lead SA, Siyanda Ntenga (Ntenga Foundation), Dr Thandeka Mazibuko (Cancer awareness in Africa) and Vodacom e-school initiative]


South African of the Year

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
[Other Nominees included Bonang Matheba, Brian Molefe,  Ephraim Shakes Mashaba, Imtiaz Sooliman, Rolene Strauss and  Professor Salim Abdool Karim]

ANN7 South African of the Year 2015 Red Carpet Pictures

The red, or rather blue carpet special was hosted by a wide array of ANN7 personalities, from Vuka Africa anchor Abigail Visagie, to entertainment presenters Liezle Wilson and Avashnee Vandiar, to sports editor, Edwin Kgaswe and anchor Lauren Jenae. In addition to this, Cindi Nel also presented a few segments, which was not announced ahead of time.

Shaun Bartlett and his wife

Simphiwer Mngomzulu presented backstage segments throughout the day

Abigail Visagie speaking to Miss World, Rolene Strauss

SATY2015 judge Claudia Henkel speaking to Avashnee Vandiar

The controversian SABC COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, not only attended an awards show hosted by a rival tv channel, but actually presented an award.

Avashnee Vandiar speaking to MTV Base presenter turned rapper along with her designer

Candy Harris speaking to Bucie

Cindy Nel, who ended up cohosting the show, chatting to Maps Maponyane, who was basically the face of the 2015 SATYs

Mango Groove opened the show

Overall, the red carpet wasn't too bad, it just seemed to not flow properly