The reason for both anchors leaving is that neither wants to work at night anymore. Though prime time is where any journalist wants to be considering its much larger audience, the veteran anchors are no longer willing to work their long days: both are presenters on PowerFM in the morning, then anchors at night.
Rather poetically (or coincidentally), burnout due to working radio and tv is the exact same reason why News Night's first female anchor, Redi Thlabi (then Redi Direko), left the job as well.
In recent months the two have been increasingly taking off days as well. This reached a stage where neither anchors on a Friday night and during the rest of the week it is mostly only one of them on duty.
Maggs leaves the slot after nearly nine years there, while Rappetti leaves after five. The five years that the duo have been together precedes the existence of the country's other two news channels, SABC News Channel and ANN7 and have been the constant in eNCA's lineup tweaks over the past few years, including a name change.
“It has been a heady, tough, rewarding, crazy ride,” says Iman.
“Both Jeremy and Iman have been key to the success of eNCA,” says Channel News Director Mapi Mhlangu. “We thank them for their loyalty, hard work and brilliance in bringing powerful news stories to our screens. This is a big change for the channel and our viewers, but also an opportunity to showcase talent in our newsroom and beyond.”
No word yet on who will replace the duo, but eNCA's bench of good enough anchors is not that deep so if anchors in other slots get the promotion, the channel will still have to look outside the group for new anchors in those slots. (Personally, my bets are on Joanne Joseph and Gareth Edwards, as that reduces disruption on the rest of the schedule and doesn't pull any of the quality reporters from the field, but let's see).
Their final evening on News Night is expected in May, closer to the channel's birthday.
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