SONA2017: Live Notes

5pm: Iman Rappeti is anchoring eNCA's coverage from the Parliamentary Precinct. She is joined by Karima Brown and Richard Calland in studio with Annika Larsen on red carpet duty. Larsen, who is a seasoned reporter and interviewer is doing a good job but she is not relaxed enough for a red carpet coverage. She asks questions about people's outfits in the same way she asks them political questions.
Having her do interviews h=none stop from the red carpet creates a few cringy moments between interviews and even during interviews. Having only one reporter on the red carpet doing uninterrupted coverage for long minutes on end was not a good idea.

ANN7 did the 5pm hour from their Midrand studio with a double anchor format for the hour. In studio, they had political analyst, Sipho Seepe, and a fashion designer too.
ANN7 had an embarrassing moment on the red carpet when their red carpet reporter wanted to know about Patricia De Lille resigning from the mayoral position in Cape Town (which she of course did not do). She then just corrected the reporter and moved on.

SABC News 5pm hour was anchored by Eben Jansen and Chriselda Lewis in their Auckland Park studio. They focussed less on live coverage in the hour, opting to do in studio pregame anaysis and even taped pieces instead.

SABC News Channel's primary broadcast from the parliamentary precinct kicked off at 6pm with Morning Live anchor, Leanne Manas and reporter, Aldrin Sampear, who was a nice fresh alternative to the older news anchors traditionally seen for these broadcasts.

All three news channels ran with a split screen when the EFF and DA left the parliament, showing the President's speech on the one half and scenes from outside on the other. Only ANN7 carried Malema's remarks live while the SABC decided to live stream the EFF's entire press briefing online.

At 9:50 pm, etv ended its simulcast with eNCA immediately after President Zuma's speech to play their Thursday night movie.

At 10:15pm, SABC2 ended its simulcast (which started at 6pm) with SABC News Channel to broadcast the day's episodesof 7de Laan and Muvhango.

At 10:30pm, eNCA ended its primary broadcast from the Parliamentary Precinct, shifting anchoring duties back to their Johannesburg studio where Flo Letoaba was standing by. At this point, the channel carried a basically traditional news bulletin, showing inserts and highlights on the event while other channels stayed with analysis.

SABC News Channel and ANN7 joined eNCA in sending things back to Johannesburg at the end of Zuma's speech. SABC news' Your World broadcast from the main SABC News studio and not their usual smaller one. ANN7 did still continue to throw to Sindy mabe at parliament for further analysis with her panel and interviews as well.

At 10:30pm, all three major news channels carried President Zuma's speech from the ANC's People Assembly att the Grand Parade.

At 11pm, eNCA did a normal news bulletin, complete with sport and weather while SABC News channel did not recognise the top of the hour and just continued their rolling analysis throughout. ANN7, on the other hand, finished their day's broadcast early at 11pm and opted to rebroadcast the event from then, even though viewers that wanted to see the event again could have just gone to channel 408 and watched it on the Parliamentary Service (It is important to do something no one else is doing. The channel missed out on an opportunity to provide rolling coverage from Cape Town, which they have been doing all day and no one else was doing in this hour). In other words, their late night anchor came in for a thirty minute bulletin.