[These are rough notes]
eNCA was the first news channel to break the news at 21:52 with an update on the story on its onscreen ticker. The channel covered the story in full from 10pm.
At 10:09pm, ANN7 breaks the news on their flipper (a ticker ticks, a flipper flips), with on air mention of the story immediately after.
SABC News CHannel was silent on the story for the entire 10pm hour.
In the 10:30pm half hour, SABC News Channel continued with their regular bulletin, uninterrupted, whilst ANN7 repeated a one hour old edition of Africa Tonight. eNCA decided to cancel their scheduled airing of Maggs on Media to cover the events in Tshwane. However, the channel continued with their regular sports and weather slots.
At 11pm, the SABC New Channel interviewed the Tshwane mayor by phone for what was a light news update from the mayor. Whilst the mayor spoke, instead of showing visuals of the events, for obvious reasons, the channel opted to just show a map instead. Immediately after the interview, the SABC News Channel returned to their regular news wheel for the evening.
ANN7 had two major phone interviews at the top of the 11pm hour: first with Blessing Manale, the Tshwane Mayor's spokesperson, and then with Solly Msimanga, the DA's myoral candidate for Tshwane. Once the interviews were done, they reaired the news pieces on the unrest, before they too returned to their regular news wheel with a story on the Oscar trial. The unrest was still covered on their onscreen flipper.
At 11pm, eNCA had their in house commentator, Angelo Fick in the studio providing analysis on the events. This interview continued well after the other news channels ceased covering the events. However, one has to question whether this style of relaxed analysis is required at a time when a major story is still unfolding. After this, they aired a clip from their earlier interview with the current Tshwane mayor, before going to commercial. After the break, the channels news editor joined them live from Mamelodi via Skype. This is the first on the ground coverage on an event that had been happening for hours now. It was done with a cellphone. Think about that. Soon thereafter, the channel aired another piece on the ANC's mayoral candidates
At 11:25pm, eNCA aired the weather. Again.
At 11:30pm, the SABC News Channel did a 2 minute segment on the events, just telling viewers what happened before doing a brief phone in interview with the ANC's regional deputy chairperson.
Believe it or not, at 11:30pm, the SABC News Channel provided the best coverage on the events compared to the other news channels:
eNCA decided to re air today's edition of the Justice Factor again. What is strange is that before the start of the episode, the channel did not even sign off. The anchor simply said the weather is next, not telling viewers that might expect otherwise that he will not be back after the break.
ANN7 is even worse: they re aired their entire 11pm news bulletin in full at 11:30pm without any indication that what viewers are seeing is in fact not live news. Personally, I feel passing a taped bulletin as being live is one of the biggest 'sins' a news channel can commit.
There are roughly 5 million DStv households in the country. They were the only ones with access to any news on the events.
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