IN PICTURES: 2016 Municipal Elections (Plus closing comments)

Mmusi Maimane talking to ANN7's Sindy mabe in what was a rather tough interview on Municipal Elections Night

ANN7's SA Decides team spent their last few days on the job pushing long hours to reach voters in every corner of the country

Iman Rappetti with Thulasizwe Similane and Justice Malala providing some build up to the first results in the 2016 Municipal Elections

eNCA's Newsroom on Election Day

Devan Murugan and Naatasha Thorp continued the SABC's rolling coverage of the 2016 Municipal Elections

eNCA had some reporters reporting via Skype. Enough of this now. I am so over cellphone reporting

CNBC Africa hosted quite an insightful election day panel focusing on the money matters

All the news channels carried President Jacob Zuma voting live

Strangely, the SABC had their most recognised and experienced anchors anchoring the breakfast show hours on election day. Leanne Manas and Peter Ndoro were on air from 5am on Election Day

Peter van Onselen was forced to anchor alone after his planned coanchor for the day, Chante Jantjies had to call in sick on what would be the biggest news day of the year

Uveka Rangappa taking a selfie with the eNCA studio crew on Election Day. As always, Uveka anchored extended hours by herself

Final thoughts:
Young talent. That is what stood out for me. Both ANN7 and SABC News were not afraid to let their young anchors carry the day. SABC news made a bold decision to have the experienced Leanne Manas and Peter Ndoro anchor in the morning as opposed to prime time. Even having the two of them together as opposed to splitting them up to have more hours covered was brave. However, the likes of Alicia Jali and the channel's other anchors that have only been on air since the channel launched in 2013 were more than capable to hold their own.

The same could be said for ANN7. However, ANN7 depended more on younger journalists in the field. The only young prominent anchor to make an election debut was Audrey Chimwanda, who hosted SA Decides. Even though Sindy Mabe is well known on the domestic broadcasst news scene, this was her first time anchoring extended coveerage as well (Prior to joining ANN7, Mabe hosted Sunrise on eTV but she never got to anchor election coverage as eTV opted for eNCA's feed on election day). It was odd having sports anchors Peter Stemmet and Edwin Kgaswe unexpectedly anchoring extended hours of election coverage though.

eNCA's coverage lacked the said youthful spirit. The only first time anchor on Election Day was Cathy Mohlahlana and even she has contributed greatly to previous elections as a reporter. Yes, I know that if it is not broken, do not fix it, but eNCA could really do with a breath of fresh (younger) air somehwere. They had the oldest anchor/analyst line up by far. Yes this led to the best production overall, but it lacked excitement.

In closing, an Election Day broadcast is a major project that channel's dont get to practice to perfection due to their rarity. Unlike in the US where channels get to do wall to wall coverage for debates and conventions and the likes, local news channels do not have that many opportunities to improve their rolling coverage skills. This led to on air mistakes by everyone. Everyone. But it was nice to watch and basically cheer them on. It was particularly nice on eNCA to actually run a story highlighting the channel's own mess ups.