eNCA looking outside of organisation for Andrew Barnes' replacement

The unexpected departure of Andrew Barnes from eNCA has left a void at the channel's Cape Town bureau, particularly at the channel's only news bulletin broadcast from Cape Town, News Day (By the way, this is the only bulletin on any 24 hour news channel in the country anchored from outside of Johannesburg).

It now seems that the channel doesn't think that anyone in the organisation is capable of filling Barnes' shoes, and has issued the below vacancy (which is posted here, courtesy of TVSA):
 eNCA is looking to hire a senior news anchor to present news bulletins from the channel's Cape Town office. The position is a one year contract post.

Reporting to the eNCA news editor, your dutires would include:

 - Anchoring daily news bulletins Monday - Friday,

- Field anchoring where necessary,

- Researching interviews as part of the editorial team,

- Contribute to story ideas and help with conceptualising content for the show,

- Check and rewrite links for the show where necessary,

- Arrange and set up interviews when required,

- Conduct live and pre-recorded interviews during and outside of the show,

- Voice-overs for packages when required,

 - Engage on social media, to promote the brand and the programme.

Requirements

- At least 10 years’ experience in journalism, with at least five of those years anchoring on TV,

 - Journalism qualification,

- Good general knowledge, thorough understanding of South African politics,

- A team player and an ability to work with others,

- Work to strict deadlines and display initiative,

- Willingness to work flexible hours - shifts, weekends and longer hours if necessary.

If you have these criteria and qualifications, you can send your Application form and a detailed CV to jobs@enca.com

Only shortlisted applicants who meet the criteria will be contacted. If you haven't received a response within 14 days after the closing of the advert, you will know that your application hasn't been successful.

Closing date: Monday, 2 May 2016.

Very few people in the country actually meet the above requirements, so I will be interesting to see who they get. Of the people that meet this requirement, how many are actually willing to move to Cape Town?

The obvious and major requirement not listed above is that the anchor has to be male. All of eNCA's flagship programming is dual anchored by a male-female pairing and the current anchor of News Day, Michelle Craig, is female.

Andrew Barnes resigns from eNCA

eNCA this past week announced that senior anchor Andrew Barnes has resigned from the organisation.

This brings to the end an over 15 year journey with eNews for Barnes, where he spent most of the time anchoring News Day.

"After 23 years in broadcasting, I leave South Africa with my partner to start a new life in my favourite corner of the world, south-east Asia.  I'll be putting the years of experience I've gained in training and development to launch my own business in Cambodia.  While Brandon and I shall miss this country, we're excited that the time has come to spread our wings."

Andrew Barnes has anchored eNews' News Day since its inception when it was a thirty minute news bulletin at 1pm on etv, which replaced etv's prior 1pm news bulletin, a thirty minute international news roundup from Reuters (Remember those days?).

In 2008 Barnes'  News Day was expanded to three hours with the launch of the then eNews Channel and was paired up with Robyn Smith (three hours is a long time to be anchoring the news none stop), who ended her tenure at the group this past Monday.

Over the years (well at least since 2008), Andrew has had various co-anchors join him at News Day once Robyn Smith left that position. They were Sherezade Safla, Bhavna Singh and currently, Michelle Craig. Craig will continue to anchor the bulletin solo for the foreseeable future until a permanent co-anchor is announced, which will not be soon considering Cathy Mohlahlana has been waiting quite long already for a co-anchor to join her for Mid Morning News.

Barnes has had the opportunity to report from around the world during his time at eNews/eNCA, including reporting from Washington, D.C. for the historic 2008 election there and the royal wedding in London, among others.

Andrew Barnes in hot water after mocking Minister of Basic Education

With the recent race row involving Penny Sparrow reigniting the debate around how far South Africa has come, eNCA anchor, Andrew Barnes is now drawing criticism on social media.

This follows him mocking Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga's pronounciation of the English word, 'epitome.'

Follwing a link on today's edition of eNCA's News Day, Barnes commented, "Someone should have a word with the basic education minister on how to pronounce eptiome." [Ironically, Barnes does not pronounce the Minister's surname correctly]

Since then, the uproar has continued to grow on social media, with 'Andrew Barnes' currently peaking at number 3 on social network, Twitter.

In response to the uproar, Barnes tweeted, "My heartfelt apologies for the hurtful comment I made about the Education Minister's English today.You all expect more of me. I'm Sorry."

With eNCA's movement to the online realm, covering Twitter happenings on air quite often these days, many users of the site are patiently waiting for the channel to cover this story, which would meet the channel's criteria for on air coverage had it been someone else, yet no coverage yet.

Mid Term Budget Coverage Amid Student Protests

The SABC News Channel,  which has dedicated much less airtime to the student protests compared to the other news channels, covered the middterm budget from parliament as if there was no other big news happening in the country at the same time. Business anchor, Francis Herd, anchored coverage from the SABC's studio at parliament. Having a business news anchor and not a general news anchor at parliament also indicates the channel had no intention of shifting away from budget coverage to protest coverage. However, Francis did briefly mention the protests.  The SABC's budget buildup and coverage was simulcast on SABC3 from the 1pm hour, then SABC2 for the next 2 hours.

When it became clear that the happenings outside parliament would be affecting what goes on inside, the SABC decided to add a bit more focus to what was going on outside.

ANN7 showed scenes of student protesters outside parliament

On ANN7, it was as if the Midterm Budget speech was just another location of protests, i.e. only covering parliament from perspective of protesting students and not Minister Nene's speech. They continued with wall to wall coverage of the protests throughout the day. Kevin Brandt was situated outside parliament. The channel went live to parliament at 2pm, with no actual buildup to the speech. They added a video box with scenes outside parliament at about 2:20pm.

eNCA tried to find a common ground, covering the budget speech as normal as possible, with Andrew Barnes at parliament as usual, but not in the usual glass studio they have. He was instead among the protestors getting an on the ground feeling among the protestors. Throughout coverage of the proceedings, eNCA had a video box on screen showing live pictures from outside parliament.

CNBC Africa's prebudget panel

CNBC Africa covered the budget speech live, hosting both a preview and review panel on each side of the speech.

Like last year, Business Day TV did not provide any live coverage of the Mid Term Budget Speech.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 2:43pm, Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, finally [tried to] started speaking on the budget, but this was followed by a "fees must fall" chant.

2:47pm: The EFF's Ministers in Parliament were escorted out of the National Assembly

2:47pm Students have broken through the entrance of parliament. eNCA's Lester Kiewit is only reporter live on the scene covering this

2:49 Minister Nene continues speech. eNCA shows Minister in small block while allowing the scenes  outside parliament to play out with full audio.

SABC News split screen of Minister Nene and student protestors

2:53 Stun grenades go off outside parliament as Minister continues to speak
SABC News goes split screen with Minister in parliament. ANN7 completely removes small video box from happenings outside parliament


3:07pm Not one local news channel (except CNBC Africa) is providing major coverage of the midterm budget speech anymore

2:55 ANN7 Cut away from budget speech completely, covering protests outside instead. Kevin Brandt is calling in

3:02pm Andrew barnes notes he has never seen this big of a crowd attracted to a midterm budget speech.

3:10pm Gates of parliament are closed with students now locked out

Business anchor, Francis Herd, has been taken off the air of the SABC News Channel with their coverage being shifted to their studio in Johannesburg, anchored by Anita
Nomawethu Solwandle is reporting live via phone on SABC News Channel

3:31pm eNCA becomes first major news channel to return to proceedings in parliament
3:34pm Minister Nene finishes his speech, which was barely seen by viewers other than those wathcing on CNBC Africa. MP's are advised to go to their offices after parliament session ends until they advised to 'leave safely'

3:35pm MMusi Maimane requests the President and Minister Nzimande go address the people outside

3:36pm House adjurns fo the day (I have no idea what was said in the budget speech)

After budget speech, SABC News Channel tries to do classical post budget tradition of getting reaction from Ministers in Parliament, and CNBC Africa is analysing the budget.
eNCA and ANN7 focusing solely on the riots.

Michelle Craig Replaces Bhavna Singh On News Day

Michelle Craig is now officially the female co anchor on eNCA's News Day. This follows the sudden departure of Bhavna Singh from the channel after more than five years.

Michelle is of course not new to eNCA viewers. She has been a Cape Town based reporter and anchor for a while now, anchoring the now cancelled eNews Late Edition and eNews Prime Time on weekends for eTV, while acting as a fill in on News Day when both Andrew Barnes and Bhavna Singh were out.

Uncle Thinus is reporting that the cuts at eNCA is due to financially tough times that the channel is currently experiencing and that when an Bhavna's contract came up for renewal, the country's most watched news channel simply opted to not renew. 

Meanwhile, Bhavna just doesn't seem to be adjusting to life without covering the news. Though she may no longer be on television regularly, she live tweeted today's vote of no confidence motion that played out in parliament.

BREAKING: Bhavna Singh Out At eNCA's News Day

Today, Friday the 13th, marked eNCA anchor, Bhavna Singh's last day at the channel.

She cried as she signed of from News Day for the final time after being Andrew Barnes' co anchor for about three years, since early 2012.

Absolutely no reason for her sudden and shocking departure has been announced and the channel has not made a statement about it either, nor is it known who will sit alongside Andrew Barnes on News Day between 1pm-4pm on weekdays.

Bhavna was,  of course, not Andrew's first co anchor on the show. Prior to the launch of the then eNews Channel, Andrew Barnes solo anchored a 30 minute bulletin called Lunchtime Live on eTV that premiered on the 4th of October way back in 2007. Little over a year later, the eNews Channel launched and Lunchtime Live bulletin was rebranded to News Day (presumably to fit be uniform with News Night and Morning News Today), moved to a new set, was expanded to 3 hours (3 minutes on eTV and 3 hours on what is now eNCA) and Andrew got a co anchor in Robyn Smith. Then in 2010, Robyn, for reasons still unknown left News Day and later appeared on eNews Prime Time on weekends and eNews Late Edition in the week. Robyn was replaced by Scheherazade Safla who co anchored with Andrew for the entire 2011 before leaving the channel after just one year as anchor to be with her husband who was working for Al Jazeera in Doha.

She was then replaced with Bhavna Singh, who has sat in the chair next to Andrew Barnes up until today. Prior to co anchoring News Day, Bhavna was a late night, fill in and weekend channel for the then eNews Channel before relocating to Cape Town for the position of News Day co anchor (News Day is the only news bulletin on eNCA not anchored from Cape Town).

The first hint of a departure came only this past Monday when she Tweeted, "Almost ready to go for my last week on #NewsDaySA Hope you can join me, if you never have before."

Then today she tweeted the following as she hung up her boots, or lapel mic, if you want:

Last #NewsDaySA Let's roll.
— Bhavna Singh (@bhavsingh) March 13, 2015

Then, on her breakdown at the end of the show she tweeted:

Sorry guys, I thought I'd be able to get through that without losing my composure. I really will miss spending lunchtime with you all xx
— Bhavna Singh (@bhavsingh) March 13, 2015

Before finally ending it off with:

It's been a tough day and I'm humbled by the love you've shown. Thank you everybody.
— Bhavna Singh (@bhavsingh) March 13, 2015

Details to follow as they develop...

Budget Coverage Recap

SABC News' business anchor, Francis Herd, and Morning Live's Ayanda Allie Paine broadcast from Cape Town (side note: both are former eNews anchors). Francis was also the first journo to get an interview with Minister Nene after his speech. 

eNCA had business anchor Arabile Gumede in studio from early morning in their buildup to the budget speech.Bhavna Singh and Andrew Barnes anchored News Day from Parliament. Due to the budget speech, eTV viewers got to see the full edition of News Day from 1pm until 4pm. Later in the day, eNCA balanced their budget coverage with the latest developments in the leaked documents saga.

On ANN7, Juliet Newell anchored from their studio in Johannesburg. I don't know if her sitting in for Karabo Yibe today was a coincidence or not, but Juliet is of course a former business anchor at Summit TV (now Business Day TV). Avumile Qongqo was in Thembisa getting reaction on the budget from regular citizens.

Of course, as expected, both Business Day TV amd CNBC Africa provided round the clock coverage on the budget.

eNCA Suffers Power Surge Pushing Channel Off-Air, again

South Africa's most watched news channel, eNCA, experienced a power surge at their Hyde Park facilities on Monday, April 28th that forced the channel to go off air for well over an hour.

The channel went off air at approximately 10:12am on Monday morning during a live news bulletin. The channel then had a black screen with the channels on screen ident for well over twenty minutes. A few minutes later, the channel then unintentionally broadcast its raw satellite feed from its Cape Town broadcast facility that just showed the screen below:

This screen appeared intermittently between then and a few minutes past twelve.

Eventually, the channel showed various taped content, like Against All Odds and Judge for Yourself, with just a static image of the channel's  logo appearin during what should have been ad breaks.

Eventually, the channel came back up at 11:56 with Andrew Barnes live from Cape Town welcoming viewers with "A very good morning to you, this is NewsDay on eNCA, I'm Andrew Barnes. Good to be back on-air after some gremlins have been weeded out of the system."

This was immediately followed by the first story, leaving the tradtitional read of the headlines at the top of the hour. However, this did not last long as the channel went back off air at 12pm, returning to the airwaves at 12:04pm, this time with a full rundown of the headlines before normal news resumed.

While the country's most watched news channel was experiencing these technical difficulties, Phuti Mosomane of ANN7 decided to take time to send some unprofessional tweets about the situation. Though it would be okay for journos of rival channel's to tweet something to get viewers to change the channels and try something new while their channel of preference was off line, Mosomane instead chose to tweet things like "Can't cope?" then inserting the channels Twitter handle.

This is not the first time eNCA experienced a power surge that set them off the air. In 2010, they experienced a similar situation that damaged the sets used by etv's breakfast show, Sunrise. That of course, sent that show off the air for weeks while new sets were constructed and eNews Prime Time was done from Cape Town due to damage.

It is going to be interesting to see when the channel resumes broadcasts from their Johannesburg facility again.

State of the Nation Coverage Plans for eNCA, eTV, SABC News, SABC2, CNBC Africa and ANN7

This Thursday, the 13th of February is the annual State of the Nation Address by President Jacob Zuma. This is going to be an interesting one to watch as it is an election year and also to hear which issues he will address and how to address them.

©SABC News

For the first time ever, we have more than just one general news channel that will be covering the event (along with the fininacials). Since President Zuma made a smart move by moving the event to prime time where normal South Africans can see it, the channels really went all out with their coverage.



eNCA will cover the event throughout the week as part of their regulars cheduled program. Their actual coverage starts at 4pm in Cape Town at Parliament (immediately after the Cape Town broadcasted News Day). Senior anchors Iman Rapetti (NewsNight) and Andrew Barnes (NewsDay) will anchor live from Cape Town with the likes of Nikiwe Bikitsha contributing. This is Andrew's umpteenth SONA considering that he is Cape Town based, with it being Iman's second, after last year. Before that Nikiwe was the female anchor but could not last year due to her studying (I still cannot see how those studies benefitted her career).  Jeremy Maggs usually does a review panel from Joburg at 9pm.
eTV will also broadcast the address from 7pm to 8:30pm. As such both their soaps (Rhythm City and Scandal, respectively) will broadcast from 6pm, pre empting the 6pm Sotho bulletin.
EDITORS COMMENTARY: I remember last years state of the Nation address coverage on eTV and eNCA quite well. It was Valentines Day, the same day Oscar Pistorius murdered his girlfriend. As such eNCA really wanted to gain interest from an international audience who they just recently reached through Sky in the UK and LiveStation online. They did this through providing rolling coverage of the event with great repetition anchored by Deborah Patta with input from the highly talented Karyn  Maughn. This coverage did not even mention the SONA which happened at the same time. The SONA address was covered on eTV, but because they only wanted to show it until 8:30pm and Zuma stopped talking at about 8:25, they just wrapped up, wasting the resources that were brought to Cape Town including anchors, reporters and analysts.



It goes without saying that the public broadcaster will cover the even live as well. Coverage begins at 5pm on the SABC News Channel (DStv 404), repeated at midnight. This will be a full team effort  and ends at 9pm. This also makes things interesting to see what will broadcast on SABC 3 at 6:30pm  which is usually a simulcast with the SABC News coverage at that hour and also that some talents used for the 6:30pm broadcast will be used for SONA. At 9pm a sports review broadcast, which will be pre empted at 8:30pm will be broadcast at 9pm before returning to regularly scheduled programming. This is an odd choice considering that a more appropriate Business Report with Francis Herd is also being pre empted, but wont be shown.
Of course SONA coverage will be shown on SABC 2 as well, from 6pm to 8:30pm, shifting that evening's 7de Laan to a Friday double bill. At 8:30pm we have fifteen minute bulletins in Afrikaans and then Sotho back to back.
 

ANN7 will be broadcasting the event live as well. it is not clear whether they will broadcast from location but will indeed have a few reporters there. Those likely working the even include Chantal Rutter Dros and analyst Hajra Omarjee.

The Financial Networks will also be providing live coverage.

CNBC Africa has live coverage for 2 hours from 7pm.

Summit TV is unclear at this moment.

Spoilt for choice indeed, but if you prefer the speech and no fluff and analysis, you can of course get the live and raw feed with no flashy anything or fancy editing on the Parliamentary Service (DStv 408, surprised it is not on StarSat yet). This is where you go if you want your coverage anchored by the speaker of the house and not some journalist.

eNews Prime Time not Prime for etv? Part 2

I do understand that at 7pm the group broadcasts FOUR bulletins (eNews Prime Time on eTV, News Night on eNCA, their African News Bulletin for e Africa, eNuus op Kyknet) and has to get ready for an 8pm Zulu bulletin on eKasi+ and 9pm extended African bulletin,  but is it fair that the most watched one gets the least attention? That it no longer has stability?

I mean this musical chairs of anchors (and now locations as well) really makes what is actually a very successful show seem unstable when compared to the competition on SABC 3 where there is a solid 2 person anchor duo, which is their most days wekdays, a business anchor and a sports anchor, all dedicated to this show only and not on eTV where both the anchor and sports anchor are new on a daily basis.

eNews Prime Time not Prime enough for eTV?

Image courtesy of www.etv.co.za

eNews Prime Time is by far the most watched English News Bulletin in the country, more than doubling its only competiton's (SABC 3's hour long bulletin which starts at 18:30) numbers on a daily basis .

However, it seems as if eTV and eNCA are really not giving much attention to what is definitly its  most watched bulletin of the day.

As you can see, the picture in this article is that of FORMER anchor Sally Burdett which I found on etv's official website. This was the only relevant picture I could find as others show even older anchors and older logos. [If you do not know, Sally left her position as eNews Prime Time anchor to take up the position of Story Editor & Head of Anchors at eNCA since th latter half of this year. She has done the odd anchor job on eNCA every now and then, like anchoring the evening of Nelson Mandela's passing].

However, since she left this position to become head of anchors, there really has been no solid anchor in this slot.

Nikiwe Bikitsha, who left News Night two years ago to complete a 10 month leadership,academic and professional development programme known as the Fulbright Hubert Humphrey fellowship in the U.S for mid career professionals deemed leaders in their field. However when she she did not return to News Night (Where Iman Rappetti hold the co anchor title now), sh instead picked up the 4 o'clock to 6 slot and later added e News Prime Time to it as well.
First question: Is it normal that the anchor of your most watched show is someone just doing double duty after another show?

It doesn't end there. As this well learned person, Nikiwe is the group's go to anchor for on location reporting, having reported from the Eastern Cape during the period of Mandela's passing,  Pretoria for Politics and Davos for the World Economic Forum. This then leads to the obvious problem that now you have two shows that no longer have an anchor, e News Prime Time and the 4pm-6pm slot on eNCA. Usually, Jo-Anne Josephs filled in on both (she is, after all a former prime time anchor at SABC 3 before joining the then e News Channel).

But it doesn't end there. JoAnne these days are seen more on her actual slot (9am-1pm) alongside Gareth Edwards, leaving 7 pm empty, again.

On Tuesday, Jremy Maggs filled in at 4pm (and eventually did double duty on his usual slot to 9pm). However, due to obvious reasons, he cannot be on e News Prime Time. So who comes in? Junior anchor (and occasional fill in at 4pm or mid morning on eNCA) Duduzile Ramela. I have nothing against her, but I do think that it should NOT be a junior anchor anchoring your most watched show.

Wednesday was another story (because these people are really pushing limits). Cape Town did Prime Time (News Day's Andrew Barnes anchoring this time). As you know Cape Town only does the weekend, public holidays and late night news on eTV (and News Day on eNCA, simulcast for 30 minutes on eTV).

Political Tuesday Coverage: DA-Agang SA Merger Announcement

So in the early hours of today the DA and Agang-SA announced that thy will be merging. This news was of course breaking news across the local news channels, except SABC News Cahnnel, of course.

I watched the 11:30 bulletin on eNCA, which was quite neutral in tone anchored by JoAnne Josephs and Gareth Edwards (both quit talented and supposed to have anchored this slot together for quite a few months now but hasn't been the case due to them being the go-to fill in anchors on other slots, meaning one usually anchors solo). They only covered it for a few minutes though before playing an extended report by Cathy Mohlanhlana took them to the top of the hour, followed by weather.
On News Day, Andrew Barnes is co-anchoring from outside the Townhouse where the announcement was made, providing more perspective.

On ANN7 though, I was quit shocked to see exactly how critical in tone Senior Political Correspondent Hajra Omarjee was of this merger, ridiculing it in anyway she could and mentioning things like this means Mamphela cannot stan by her word, etc. which is quite silly as politicians are known to change their views more drastically. 

News on Christmas (review)

I always find news on Christmas interesting because on the one hand everyone deserves the holiday off, yet the show 'must go on.'

On SABC News, they had regular hosts for the full day, with just 1 anchor on shows that usually have two. Some shows were also shortened and replaced by dated documentary series for the festive seasnon.

Over on eNews, star Field Reporter Cathy Mohlanhlana anchored Morning News Today, her first ever anchoring job, which apparently went well if one goes with what is being said on Twitter. Gareth Edwards anchored his slot solo until 12pm (A Big Debate Re Air filled the last hour of his shift). Last year, rising star and super work horse Eleni Giokos (who has already left eNCA for Bloomberg) did both slots, from 6am until 1pm. Andrew Barnes did News Day (which doesn't simulcast on eTV on holidays). Up next was Duduzile Ramele, who gets this years workhorse award, anchoring Nikiwe Bikitsha's slot at 4pm and then News Night's slot from 6 pm through 8 pm. Again, the final hour of NewsNight which usually airs through the 8pm hour was replaced by the Big Debate. I have watched News Night every Christmas since what was then known as the eNews Channel launched back in 2008, and this was the first year there was absolutely no mention of the NewsNight name this evening or use of the NewsNight set (they just remained on the 4pm set). Last year was anchored by what was a very chirpy Iman Rapetti, years former one of the other anchors, usually junior, anchored. Robyn Adams again did eNews Prime Time, which you can see she didn't want to be there. She really no longer comes across as professional to me as she just always seems so miserable.

ANN7 (which I admittedly don't watch as much as I watch the others because I just can't get a firm enough grasp on their schedule) was the first news organisation on tv to break the news of cricket player Jacque Kallis' retirement, a first for the network, and I must say for Christmas coverage they did it quite well with call-in interviews and the likes. They also had longer form documentaries airing.

SuperSport Blitz was quite dry. They initially just did build up to Boxing day soccer and cricket coverage, much later (literally hours after ANN7 broke the news) inserting news on Kallis' retirement, along with year end reviews. Sky Sports News, which last year had some not too long form docs last year was live throughout the day, providing in depth build up to Boxing Day Sports, though they had a more relaxed feel to it than usual.

Mandela Funeral Coverage

Just a rundown of what today's funeral coverage was like:
With the travesty of the memorial behind us, very few international broadcasters made a big deal of Mandela's funeral.
CNN didn't have any big names in the country. They didn't even carry the proceedings as in depth as the memorial, instead opting for for analysis. The coverage wasn't simulcast between their two channels either.
BBC World News and Sky News carried it live.
Al Jazeera covered it more in depth than they did with the memorial.
NDTV, who carried a clearly internet quality feed of eNCA with the memorial had absoultely nothing on it this time around.
CCTV News had quite a decent amount of coverage considering their nature.
RT didn't seem to cover it at all.

Now for the fun: The Local Broadcasters:
SABC simulcasted the FULL service across all their channels (SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3, SABC News) with a sign language interpreter onscreen. (They also had a more hand-in-glove relationship with the pool feed as they produced it.) I was surprised to see Mahindra being the one to pick things up on the tail end of the service and not someone that has been more intergral in their coverage. The SABC also had their commendable programs like SABC 1 Live (Hosted by Supersport Presenter Robert Marawa who called SABC 1 his 'spiritual home' which I am sure does not create a desirable response from the guys at Supersport, and Idols Judge Unathi). They also had SABC 3 Live, which at certain points in the week were presented by Gareth Cliff and also the former Morning Live presenter. Both shows originated out of the SABC Sports studio that had been customised for the occasion.

On eNCA, they constantly made it quite clear where they were broadcasting to: Our viewers on eNCA, on eTV, watching us on the Sky platform, on Sky News Australia (which I think they were proud of, this coverage lasted until 1 pm when it was quietly dropped from the list of greeted viewers), and online (interestingly, not naming the online platforms, which comprised of Youtube, enca.com and Livestation).
I was so surprised to see it was Joanne Josephs that anchored their coverage from the studio along with Justice Malala as the analyst. This is surprising considering that they opted to not use any 'senior anchors' for the role, though Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Maggs did special editions of Newsnight both Saturday and Sunday night (14 and 15 December, respectively). The most notable senior anchor missing from their coverage is Andrew Barnes that actually co anchored with Joanne Saturday morning, but was absent Sunday. Joanne worked from dawn at 6 am until 1pm, when Uveka Rangappa relieved her. In the Eastern Cape eNCA had Nikiwe Bikitsha and Dan Moyane, who though may not have been the most fun duo for regular things as I don't think they very exciting, they were extremely well presented and had a great deal of depth in their coverage. Another anchor, Gareth Edwards, who returned from m a long period of medical leave, ddi voice over inserts afterward.

ANN7 seemed to have carried the pool feed throughout, nothing exciting there.

CNBC Africa covered the event live from their studios, which they did not do for the memorial. I must say that while their effort is appreciated, it was not well done as their graphics were still presented in a way as if it was a business show: too eye catching, and a big gap below for tickers that were not there.

The Parliamentary service has started airing parliamentary sessions of when Mandela was president. I have reached out to them to ask if they have a specific schedule, but as their website states they will be away until the fourteenth of January.

The DStv Mandela tribute channel carried the SABC feed once more.

The AFP made the pool feed available to the public from their website.

Overall, I'm sad we will never see this level of effort from local stations ever again.

Coverage Updates

Coverage has slowly decreased as the time passed by.

eTV has gone back to their near regular schedule (with the exception of Friday's Rhythm City and Scandal airing in their standard timeslots, but on a Sunday). Andrew Barnes anchored eNews Prime Time.

SABC 1 went back to a near standard schedule. What is curious here is that from 17:30 to 19:30, they produced their own memorial coverage, anchored by Robert Marawa and Unathi, both presenters on other channels (SuperSport and Idols, respectively). Their coverage is less newsy than the continues SABC News feed on SABC 2.

SABC 3 has long gone back to their regular schedule.

Channels have returned to airing commercials, something that was suspended on Friday, though they retain their black logos.