Lindy Mtongana Moves From eNCA to CCTV Africa

With the recent closure of eNCA's African news division, many staff were let go as part of the budget cutting measures or left the channel on their own for greener pastures, like Robyn Kriel.

Lindy Mtongana is another person that left eNCA for opportunities elsewhere.

Lindy has been with eNCA long before the now failed African expansion. She was initially a late night, weekend and fill in anchor for the channel before thinking that joining the African division would do wonders for her (hint: it did not). At eNCA's Africa division, Lindy anchored Africa Edition which aired Monday to Friday at 7pm GMT on the eNCA feed seen outside South Africa as well as on eTV's eTV Africa service which is available on DStv outside of South Africa and also Openview HD's eAfrica+, in additionto being aired on eNCA after midnight here in South Africa.

In addition  to this, she took up the position of senior producer at eNCA's now cancelled Africa 360, where she often filled in as anchor.

Then the African news division closed, people were laid off and Lindy had the opportunity to do what she did in the beginning before moving to the Africa division, anchor late nights and weekends.  However, Lindy was seen less frequently than before because Florence Letoaba has now become the first choice for anchoring the late night shift.

In May this year, Lindy left eNCA and headed to CCTV Africa's Kenya bureau, because Chinese broadcasters are unfortunately more capable of giving African people an opportunity to tell African stories than actual African broadcasters.

BREAKING: Robyn Kriel Leaves eNCA to Join CNN

eNCA's excellent Chief African Correspondent, Robyn Kriel, has left South Africa's most watched news channel to take up the position of East African Correspondent at CNN.

This follows about a month after she reported for CNN on the Kenyan university massacre. At the time she reported for CNN as part of CNN's affiliation agreement with eNCA.

Robyn Kriel holds degrees in broadcast journalism and musical theatre from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Her first job in broadcast journalism was at Texas station KWTX. In 2007 she moved back to her home country of Zimbabwe and did freelance reporting for networks like CNN, ABC in the US, BBC, and M-Net's Carte Blanche, among others.

 She moved to South Africa to join what was then called the eNews Channel (now eNCA) in June of 2008 and was a weekend, late night, holiday and fill in anchor. In 2010 Robyn attended Duke University as a Menell Fellow, representing eNCA. In August of 2011, she took up the position of East Africa Bureau Chief at the time the channel was expanding its coverage on African issues. In October last year when the Africa division was restructured, Robyn was given the title of Chief African correspondent, though still based in Kenya.

Below is a video from 2011 when US first lady Michell Obama paid tribute to her at the Young African Women Leaders Forum:


One could speculate that her jumping to CNN could have something to do with eNCA recently shutting down its African division, which has resulted in staff layoffs and the cancellation of the long running African news magazine show, Africa 360.

At CNN Kriel will continue to provide the excellent coverage of happenings in East Afican countries like Kenya, where the government is continuing to tackle the issue of militant group al-Shabaab, among other news.

A few of Robyn's now former colleagues and other personalities have taken to Twitter to congratulate her on the move. Here are some of them:
eNCA's Social Media Editor (and fill in anchor), Gareth Edwards tweeted:

I could not be prouder of my (now former) colleague @robynkrielCNN who has joined @cnni as a Correspondent. Talented beyond measure!!

— Gareth Edwards (@GarethEdwardsSA) May 1, 2015

Morning News Today anchor, Dan Moyane, tweeted:

All the best @robynkrielCNN. Will miss chatting to you regularly from Nairobi,

— Dan Moyane (@danmoyane) May 1, 2015

South African and Current CNN Anchor, Robyn Curnow tweeted:

You're going to be great. It's wonderful for CNN (and Africa) @robynkrielCNN: @ferialhaffajee @RobynCurnowCNN Big shoes to fill!”

— Robyn Curnow (@RobynCurnowCNN) May 1, 2015

eNCA Silently Ends Africa Edition

eNCA, South Africa's most watched news channel, seems to have ended its African news bulletin, eNCA Africa Edition, seen on the channel between 9pm and midnight outside SA and between midnight and 6am on its South African feed.

The launch of eNCA Africa Edition coincided with the channel's rebrand from the eNews Channel to eNCA in August of 2012 when the channel launched on the UK's Sky satellite platform and also the online platform livestation.com.

The three hour bulletin was anchored by the likes of Lindy Mtongana, who moved from anchoring late nights and weekends on eNCA to anchoring the African bulletin for the international feed. She was joined by the likes of Nigerian Richard Nta, who though was meant to be the sports reporter, sat as main anchor quite often, and also new Africa 360 host,  Sisonke Msimang.

The team was led behind the camera by the excellent eNCA Africa editor, Chris Maroleng, who recently left the channel. Whether his departure from eNCA has anything to do with the ending of the show is unkown.

Due to the show only being shown on the SA feed after midnight, eNCA was the only of the local news channels to broadcast new, though not live, news after midnight.

Signs that the show had silently ceased to be slowly started to appear: First the programming guide no longer listed it, then the overnight hours when the show traditionally aired in SA started re-airing whatever had aired on eNCA's SA feed during the 9pm-12am slot. The final sign that confirmed my suspision was when the likes of Lindy Mtongana, who had been used exclusively on the show started anchoring on eNCA again, I knew the show had ended.

At this point it is unclear whether eNCA Africa Edition will ever return, though I personally hope it does.

Though I am glad the likes of Lindy are back on eNCA after being shown exclusively aftr midnight for over two years, the addition of the eNCA Africa Edition anchors to the rotation of anchors that do weekends and late nights on the channel means that the likes of Fenly Foxen, Duduzile Ramele and Mabale Moloi are all going to be seen less due to having to squeeze so many on air anchors into a limited amount of hours.

*Overnight refers to the hours 12am-6am
**Late night refers to the hours 9pm-12am
(Forgive me for any errors in this post, but Im having to type this on my cellphone due to cable theft leaving me unable to access the internet from my pc)