Election Coverage Review: eNCA

Courtesy of Patrick Conroy's Twitter

Of all three news channels we have, eNCA undoubtedly had the least sensational coverage (not necessarily bad).

Uveka Rangappa, who anchored from 6am to 12pm on election day got to cover all the bigger politicians in the country  voting. Here, she is covering President Zuma voting from his hometown in Nkandla.

Whilst the other channels broadcast primarily from the IEC Election Centre (and in ANN7's case, a decent amount from the studion), eNCA decided to stick with their broadcast originating from their Hyde Park studios, away from the hustle and bustle that goes along with being able to broadcast from the IEC Centre. This was in contrast to the atmosphere created on the other channels.

Gareth Edwards at the big screen from which he did most of his presentations for an extended period of Election day. The screen was controlled by him using the two iPads seen on the desk in front of him.

They also went with the format of their previous election coverage of having the main studio anchor anchoring a WHOPPING SIX HOURS of coverage on end. This started off with Uveka Rangappa from 6am to 12pm, Siki Mgabadeli(see paragraph below) taking over from her until 6pm, Joanne Joseph taking us to midnight while the team of eNCA Africa Edition co-anchored the overnight hours on Wednesday evening until 6am when Uveka was back (Do not judge me for not knowing their names. Not even Joanne Jospehs knew their names as she just said at the top of the hour "the next team" takes over whereas prior to this every anchor would actually give the name of who would follow them). Gareth Edwards was at the touch screen for most of the day from about 6am until nearly six pm, spending most of his birthday providing live analysis on the numbers around the election

Siki Mgabadeli anchored the channel's afternoon coverage.

I am very disappointed that the channel had Siki Mgabadeli anchor six hours of the coverage, considering that she is not even an anchor at the channel. Elections are a time to showcase your best anchors and reporters so that the casual viewers who tune in for a big event like elections could potentially be enticed into tuning in again after the news fades. Instead of doing this, the channel decided to showcase the presenter of a seasonal one hour per week show, The Big Debate (which we can now almost certainly guarantee will be back for a new season ) for a full six hours. I also do not see how her presenting that show justifies her getting the slot ahead of the likes of young talent like Gareth Edwards, who had to play second fiddle to her, as she is primarily a business anchor, having had experiences at channels like CNBC Africa and Summit TV. Her first half an hour was not the best news reading, to say the least, the next half hour Gareth played a bigger role and from there she took over the driving seat becoming better in the space of the long six hour afternoon shift she carried, admittedly.

News Night anchors Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Maggs presented coverage from the IEC Results Centre. Courtesy: Iman Rappetti's Twitter

I must say I admired the channels "All hands on deck" approach when it came to having reporters literally stationed around the country. Late night, weekend and fill in anchor Fenly Foxen was used as a reporter, along with eNews Late Edition and weekend edition hosts Robyn Smith and Amy McIver were used as reporters as well, Robyn from the Northern Cape and Amy as an exceptional interviewer at the IEC Centre (she should really take on the role more often). All senior anchors (Jeremy Maggs, Dan Moyane and Iman Rappetti) anchored short panel sessions from the IEC Centre. eNCA was the only channel that used their "studio" at the IEC  Centre as "soft segments" (segments done from a couch).

The channel had reporters at all of the IEC's provincial centres

The channel carried a special edition of Late Night News with the brilliant Loyiso Gola at 9:30pm, which I am not sure was a smart move as this was just thirty minutes after polls officially closed and thus there must have been a large amount of live crossings that could have been done in that slot.

JoAnne Jospeh along with analysts Angelo Fick and Justice Malala carried the channels Election Day coverage from 6pm to midnight

Their graphics for the election results which started appearing at 9pm were just the right size, not too small or too big and distracting (like ANN's). As results started to trickle in Joanne Joseph kept consulting with her brilliant panel of Angelo Fick (who is now a permanent member of the eNCA team) and Justice Malala, who all were great initially, started fading as time ticked by. What do you expect if you going to be speaking to the same two people for six hours?

Post midnight, the first major interview the channel got was with with DA leader Hellen Zille who spoke to now midmorning anchor CathyMohlahlana from the IEC Election Centre.

Overall, this was amazing coverage, but could have presented more excitingly.