All local news channels cover the first anniversary of the passing of Nelson Mandela

eNCA, SABC News and ANN7 all had rolling coverage today of the first anniversary of the passing of former president Nelson Mandela.

While the 24 hour news channels devoted vast resources to cover the event, the free to air channels that usually carry major local news and 'offical events,' SABC 2 and eTV, decided not to touch their regular schedule to cover the event, opting to stick to its normal news bulletins. Not even for the 10am moment of silence did any free to air broadcaster hold their schedule to inform the nation that it is now the moment of silence.

On the news channels, all anchors anchored heir usual slots, with much more reporters on the ground at various key points. All news channels also carried the proceedings at the Union Buildings live and for the great deal in its entirety.

Cyril Ramaphosa on eNCA, ANN7 and SABC News at same time

The official programme at the Union Buildings, which were emceed by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa ended at 12:55 with Joanne Joseph picking things up for eNCA, Abigail Visagie picked things up  at ANN7 while SABC News stayed with live visuals for a while longer. All channels went to an ad break just before one, with all regular lunchtime shows picking up at 1pm.

SABC News
On SABC news, Chriselda Lewis reported from the Centre of Remembrance this morning while Vuyo Mvoko and Matiba Mutheiwana were at Freedom Park (Side note: I must say I absolutely LOVE the way the SABC uses Mvoko only on special occasions. When he is on tv, you know something major is happening)

SABC News'Vuyo Mvoko was at Freedom Park

SABC News was the first broadcaster to break away from memorial coverage to show other news, which today included news on the SABC Chairperson and Eskom, and even sports news. Though you could say it is their responsibility as the state broadcaster to broadcast state affairs, one has to remember that the one oçlock bulletin is available to people that do not have access to a 24 hour news service and therefore it is their job to inofrm about other news as well, while eNCA instead opted to focus the entire part of their bulletin that is available to non DStv subscribers to Nelson mandela, with sports in its normal slot, leaving free to air viewers in the dark when it came to news from Eskom.

eNCA
eNCA's regular anchors did their regular slots, only with Joanne Joseph using the main side of eNCA's set and not the side where her slot is usually done from (She also looked rather nice today, I might add).
As has become tradition at eNCA with major news stories, any double anchored show will have one anchor in studio whilst the other is on location. For Morning News Today, Uveka Rangappa was in studio while Dan Moyane was at Freedom Park.
For News Day, Bhavna Singh (who I now notice does very little, if any actual reporting and interviews) was in studio while Andrew Barnes was on Robben Island.

Other reporters for the channel included Thulasizwe Simelane, who was at the Union Buildings where he was the channel's on the ground reporter at the official proceedings while Xoli Mngambi is in Qunu. Lester Kiewit was at the V & A Waterfront and social media editor, Gareth Edwards, covered the Mandela Legacy Cup, which is to be contested between the Proteas and the Springboks.
The channel also featured historical poets adding a bit of variety between all the interviews.

eNCA anchor, Dan Moyana, recorded an interview with Nelson Mandela's former personal assistant, Zelda le Grange. The interview was featured throughout the day.

ANN7
Hajra Omarjee, who tweeted that she woke up at 1am,was at Freedom Park along with Kalden Ongmu while Avumile Qongqo is in Qunu. Clement Manathela was at the Union Buildings as well.
ANN7 was the only channel to have broken out of live coverage of the proceedings at the Union Buildings for a short interview in studio, which was rather silly of them to do.

ANN7's Nzinga Qunta in studio while Paskiekar Modliar was at the wonderers and Avumile Qongqo was in Qunu.

As the day progressed, ANN7 eased into more long format reports on the life and passing of Mandela. I must say I hate these massive borders ANN7 uses.

At 4pm, SABC News and ANN7 seemed to go with 'regular' news instead, with Eskom's power outages as the main headline.

All of MNet's channels, including the Afrikaans Kyknet had the Hashtag #RememberingMadiba onscreen throughout the day, while eNCA's #RememberMandela was the number one Trending Topic in SA throughout the day.

Supersport's news channel, Supersport Blitz, aired inserts on Mandela and sports throughout the day, and had an in memorium banner intergrated into its graphics. They also re aired a documentary on Mandela throughout the day on various Supersport channels that did not have any live sports to show.