Nominees for ANN7's South African Of the Year Awards Revealed (Includes Full List)

ANN7 yesterday announced the nominees for the second annual South African of the Year Awards, which is set to take place at the TicketPro Dome in Johannesburg on October 17th.

Below is the full list of nominees for the awards show slated to be hosted by Maps Maponyane. All in all, there are 9 categories with 63 nominees in total (or 62, considering that DJ Sbu is technically nominated in two categories, the first time someone got nominated in more than one category at the SATY Awards):

Campaign of the Year

• Afreakan Dream
• Africa Against Ebola (MTN)
• Crime Line
• Kagiso Shanduka Trust
• Ke Yona [Nedbank]; 
• MoFaya [DJ Sbu]
• ProteaFire [Cricket SA]

Spirit of Humanity 

•  Creseldah Ndlovu [Mother Teresa of Bushbuckridge]
•  Jordan vd Walt [Just One Bag Campaign]
•  Lead SA
• Ntenga Foundation [Donate School shoes camapign]
• Sibusiso Leope Education Foundation [DJ Sbu]
• Dr Thandeka Mazibuko [Cancer awareness in Africa]
• Vodacom e-school initiative. 

Business Leader of the Year 

• Christo Van Der Rheede
• Herman Mashab
• Jabu Mabuza
• John Michael Judin
• Mervyn King
• Shameel Joosub.  

Entrepreneur of the Year

•  Adri Kruger
• Gil Oved and Ran Neu-Ner [The Creative Council]
• Ismail Hassen [CSR-Africa]
• Marthie Jansen van Rensburg [Trans-Caledon Tunnel]
• Thabo Molefe [DJ Tbo Touch]
• Theresa Cupido [ATN Group]
• Tommy Makhatho [Bibi Cash & Carry].

Young Person of the Year

• Foki Molemane [Tosman Entertainment Rockers]
• Kagiso Rabada [cricketer]
• Kgomotso Pooe [Soweto Outdoor Adventures]
• Malibongwe Xaba [One Young World Ambassador]
• Mbongeni Msomi [Carwash Supreme]
• Simon Molekwa [Life4U]
•  Vuyani Masuku [Park & Blue Pools Primary Co-op]

Conservationist of the Year 

• Craig Spencer [Wildlife research and conservation]
• Div de Villiers [Green Scorpions]
• Fundisile Mketeni [CEO SA National Parks]
• Karen Trendler [founder, Wildcare Africa]
•  Mark Boucher [SAB-Boucher Conservation]
•  Sinegugu Zukulu [Endangered Wildlife Trust]
• Yolan Friedmann [Global Cheetah Forum]. 

Trendsetting Celebrity of the Year

• AKA
• Cassper Nyovest
• Terry Pheto
• Nomzamo Mbatha
• Nandi Mngoma 
• Jonathan Boyton-Lee
• The Soil

Sports Person of the Year

• AB de Villiers
• Duane Vermeulen
• Gift Kelehe
• Janine van Wyk
• Schalk Burger
• Tefu Mashamaite
• Teko Modise

South African of the Year

• Bonang Matheba 
• Brian Molefe
• Ephraim Shakes Mashaba
• Imtiaz Sooliman
• Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
• Rolene Strauss 
• Prof Salim S Abdool Karim

You can vote at the South African of the Year Awards website, which you can find here.

Thus far, AKA, The Soil & ChianoSky have been confirmed to perform at the awards ceremony, with more artists, including international artists, to be confirmed at a later date. 

SABC News Channel Covers EFF Second Anniversary Live

The SABC News Channel (DStv 404) was the only 24 hour South African news channel to provide rolling coverage of the EFF's 2nd Anniversary celebrations.

The event was broadcast live from 2pm to 5:30pm. The channel had contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko as anchor.

The broadcast was also carried live for a shorter period of time on the more widely distributed SABC2. The portion broadcast on the free to air channel included EFF leader, Julius Malema's speech.

Though the event was not broadcast live on eNCA, who had their regularly scheduled programming, it was streamed live on Youtube and their website, enca.com.

Julius Malema's speech was carried live on ANN7 as well.

The event was also the top trending topic on Twitter for Saturday afternoon.

KykNet Announces New Breakfast Show

KykNet (DStv 144) has finally announced a replacement for their failed breakfast show, Dagbreek, which ended back in April.

The channel's new breakfast show, 'Die GROOT Ontbyt' (The BIG Breakfast), will simply be a video simulcast of GROOT FM 90.5's breakfast show and will be broadcast weekday mornings from 6am to 8am on both KykNet and the soon to launch Kyknet Nou.

Radio and television personality, Johrné van Huyssteen, will anchor (present?) the show. He will be joined by Nadia Meukes, who herself is not new to Kyknet viewers, as well as Hendri Myburgh, who will present business news and social media updates and Elsa Esterhuizen, who is the show's resident newsreader. The show also has a Cape Town-based correspondent in Rouchelle Liedemann.

Viewers can look forward to actuality, news, sport, traffic, weather and music (beccause it is still simply a radio simulcast) in the new breakfast show.

Though KykNet is promoting the show as the first radio-television hybrid show in South Africa, it is most definitely not. Prior to this show, Gareth Cliff's radio breakfast show from CliffCentral was simulcast on Comedy Central before it was cut due to low ratings and before that DJ Sbu's YFM breakfast show was simulcast on Soweto TV before it too got canned, but because of money issues.

I don't see myself waking up to a visually unstimulating breakfast show in the morning, but if this seems to be your kind of thing, chheck it out from August 10th, 2015 on KykNet (DStv 144) and KykNet Nou (DStv 146) from 6am.

I Am South African Starts, Adds Avashnee Vandiar as Co Host, Causes ANN7 Lineup Tweak

The second season of ANN7's I Am South African started today, July 20th, at 6pm.

With the launch of I AM South African in the 6pm hour, GameOn! with Mahreen Chenia moves an hour earlier to 5:30pm, and its late night repeat also moves an hour earlier to 9:30pm, replacing the repeat of Buzz@ANN7.

With all the hype around the launch of I Am South African and that Maps Maponyane will be hosting, one thing ANN7 (seemingly conveniently) forgot to mention is that Maps would have a cohost on the show in Avashnee Vandiar. Avashnee is not a stranger to ANN7 viewers, having previously anchored the entertainment bulletin in Chantal Rutter Dros' version of ANN7 Prime and also having a role in a recent local movie.

ANN7 also added a new set just for the show (see above) which seems like someone's living room. Those unnecessarily big graphic are back as well (sighs).

ANN7 Prime Now Allows Viewers to Call In

Candy Harris and Sebenzile Nkambule Anchor ANN7 Prime

ANN7's prime time news bulletin, ANN7 Prime, is now allowing viewers to call in live on air during the programme's on air discussions.

This as these discussions now seem to be extended for over half an hour (sometimes closer to an hour) with so many in studio panelists that some guests have to sit on the secondary set.

Though I am not totally against viewer call in shows, it has to be done right. One show that seems to do it perfectly is SABC News Channel's Question Time, which is definitely not the channel's orime time bulletin.

Though some callers raise valid talking points, like the young girl that called in thinking that the recent amendments to sex laws in the country made legal, many callers are given a national prime time platform to air their hate speech, things like Nigerians are ruining our country, among others.

The in studio discussions are now just way too long, often preempting sports news and many other stories, meaning that viewers looking for a summary of the day's top news stories now have to look elsewhere.

ANN7 should turn this whole extended debate call in format into a show of its own but it should no longer be branded as the channel's main news bulletin, because it very faintly resembles one.

[don't get me started on how the channel's news banners seem to now rival the Daily Sun: everything gets an exclamation mark, everything gets sensationalised] 

I Miss EuroNews...

You know who would have covered the Greek crisis better than anyone else?
EuroNews

DStv removed the channel a while ago due to low viewership figures, which is a reasonable explanation.

But the thing is without EuroNews DStv now has no news channel dedicated solely to the highly influential European continent.

Who covers South African news better than anyone else? eNCA, SABC News CHannel and ANN7
Who covers ythe UK better than anyone else? BBC World News and Sky News?
Who covers India better than anyone else? NDTV 24
Who covers China better than anyone else? CCTV News'
What about Russia? RT
The Middle East? Al Jazeera English
The US? CNNi

So the biggest region without a presence on DStv? Europe.

And the absence is notable in the coverage of the Greek bailout.

Eleni Giokos Out at Bloomberg TV Africa

Eleni Giokos, the amazing financial news anchor, has left Bloomberg TV Africa.

Prior to working at Bloomberg TV Africa, Gokos was seen on CNBC Africa as an anchor, and then on eNCA, where she did both business reporting and anchoring, as well as general news anchoring. She left eNCA in late 2013 to pursue new territory at Bloomberg, who at the time were still in the process of expanding their African operations beyond simply being a simulcast of Bloomberg's European feed.

She anchored and reported for Bloomberg's African properties,  Business Week Africa and other speciality magazine shows, and also reported for the international Bloomberg properties on African issues.

She silenty left Bloomberg TV Africa at some point over the last three months and has simply been doing freelance reporting on finncial issues, most prominently the Greek crisis.

Since leaving Bloomberg TV Africa, Giokos has appeared multiple times on her old stomping rounds, eNCA, reporting mainly on Morning News Today and News Night.

She has even appeared on DJ Fresh's radio show on 5FM as well as on Radio 702, and also Bloomberg TV Africa.

It goes without saying that Eleni Giokos is currently THE hottest free agent in broadcast journalism today. I hope she ends up on a platform where she gets the airtime she deserves.

eNCA Launching WhatsApp Service

eNCA, South Africa's most watched news channel and also the most popular news channel online, is stepping into new territory this Monday when they launch a WhatsApp service this coming Monday, July 13th.

Following their entrance into the online world with the successful enca.com and the highly popular @eNCA Twitter handle, the channel is now expanding its presence onto the most popular instant messaging platform in South Africa.

To join eNCA's WhatsApp mailing list, viewers should simply add the eNCA WhatsApp contact (0827770356) and send a message containing their name and surname to the contact.

From that point onward, subscribers can expect a daily early morning news brief containing the days early headlines, trending topics and weather. They can also expect breaking news alerts throughout the day as well.

Davind McKenzie heads to CNN's Johannesburg Bureau

CNN's current Beijing correspondent, David McKenzie will soon be relocating to the news organisation's Johannesburg bureau.

This comes months after Robyn Curnow, along with her husband and former bureau head, Kim Norgaard, both relocated from the Johannesburg bureau to take up positions at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, GA. 

Since Curnow left, various international correspondents would make their way to South Africa to cover news events to fill the void. 

Now, McKenzie, who was previously based in Johannesburg before being moved elsewhere, takes up the position of Johannesburg correspondent permanently. 

Maps Maponyane replaces Hulisani Ravele as host of I Am South African, set to Host South African of the Year Awards

ANN7 has revealed that South African celebrity/actor/model/reality tv star Maps Maponyane will be hosting the second season of the channel's I Am South African chat show.

Maponyane said that he chose to host the show because he "thought it would be remarkable to be a part of something that celebrates ordinary South Africans doing extraordinary things."

When asked how season 2 of I Am South African will be different from season 1, which was hosted by Hulisani Ravele, Maponyane stated that it would be more intimate this time around and will try to get the guests to expose emotions they would not have otherwise exposed.

On his interview style, Maponyane stated that he was more observational and will help his guests get more comfortable on screen, though he does not have any experience in a talks show or similar format.

Season 2 of I Am South African starts on Monday the 13th of July at 6pm and will air Monday to Saturday for an hour every day(believe it or not airring six days a week is a day shorter than the first season which aired seven days a week).

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South African celebrity Maps Maponyane has been announced to host ANN7's second annual South African of the Year Awards.

The inaugural edition of the surprisingly well done Awards was cohosted by Bonang Matheba and Chantal Rutter Dros.

The South African of the Year Awards premieres live on ANN7 (DStv 405) on October 17th.