Though Sindy Mabe's now well covered move to ANN7 was announced for this coming Monday, the anchor started early by anchoring most of the 3pm hour on the channel today.
What is traditionally a normal news bulletin anchored by Karabo Yibe, was instead a debate anchored by Mabe, identical to the type of debate she will be chairing come Monday when she takes over ANN7 Prime.
The hour was still branded on air as Newspoint, though.
The topic of the hour? None other than the Guptas' controversial ownership of ANN7 and its sister newpaper, The New Age, and a report the two entities released about the ANC apparently gtting ready to recall President Zuma. This is something Mabe will have to defend on a regular basis should the Guptas continue to stay in the spotlight.
Today alone, in defense of the Guptas, Mabe cited the positive influence the Guptas had on the country, which includes an amount invested in the economy apparently exceeding R10 billion and that over R200 million of taxes are generated by Gupta employment. The whole defense came across as awkward.
The whole hour was probably just a test hour for Mabe to get used to the setup and ANN7. I must say she is very good at what she does. It was not her being on tv that drew my attention but rather me wanting to see who this anchor is that is doing quite a good job on a channel that generally has bland anchors. ANN7 Prime is in good hands. But for how long? We'll see.
The interest generated by Mabe joining ANN7 in the media has been quite sizable considering how silent these things usually are for the channel. They seem to have a proper PR/marketing division now sending out releases on these kind of things while they even have a Twitter accoun dedicated to marketing the channel.
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
ANN7 announced that broadcast veteran, Sindy Mabe, will be joining the channel as the new anchor of their flagship news programme, ANN7 Prime.
She will be replacing Peter van Onselen, who vacates the position after just under three months. Prior to that, Sebenzile Nkambule held down the fort, and prior to that was a whole slew of different anchors and formats for a prime time news bulletin that just does not seem to find any consistency.
Sindy now joins a long list of former eTV personalities that have anchored ANN7 Prime: Chantal Rutter-Dros, Juliet Newell and Peter van Onselen all have eTV listed on their CV's before ANN7. At eTV, Sindy anchored the channel's breakfast show, Sunrise
Though this is not the first time the channel has turned to an outsider to anchor its prime time bulletin after its anchor left, it does highlight that ANN7 has not yet been able to groom an anchor in house for the position, especially considering how much they pride themselves on being the place where young journalists can get a start in the in
Sindy Mabe anchors ANN7's (DStv 405) Prime bulletin, which airs weekdays between 7pm and 9pm from this coming Monday, 21 March 2016. [Strange date, you never want a major event on a tv show happening on a public holiday when viewership is traditionally low]
ANN7 and its sister newspaper, The New Age, made the headlines today when EFF leader, Julius Malema, stated at a press briefing today that journalists from the two Infinity Media entities are no longer welcomed at EFF events.
Infinity Media, the holding company of ANN7 (DStv 405, ann7.com/livetv) and The New Age, is owned by the controversial Gupta family, who have resurfaced in the media these past few weeks as a result of their close relations with senior ANC officials. Malema, along with members of the EFF, are accusing the two media entities (which share the same editor, Moegsien Williams) of not conducting proper reporting, but are instead acting as a mouthpiece for the Gupta family in the same way as 'Naspers did for the Apartheid government.' Furthermore, he stated that individuals working for these orgamisations would 'not be safe' at EFF events.
[You can see Malema's full media briefing by clicking here. (eNCA)]
The move was met, expectedly, by uproar from members of the press, with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) commenting on the story throughout the day to media houses, including having a representitive present at both ANN7 and SABC News Channel's debates around the issue. SANEF stated that it was unacceptable for any political party to intimidate journalists.
The ruling party's spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, also condemned the comments made by Malema, going further to state that these comments incite violence and goes against the same constitution that allows Malema to be in parliament.
ANN7 and the New Age's editor-in-chief, Moegsien Williams, appeared on ANN7 throughout the day to comment on the matter. Speaking to Karabo Yibe on ANN7's Good Evening SA, Moegsien stated, "[The statements] reminds me a lot of Donald Trump in the United States who wants to ban Muslims and throw reporters out of press conferences.He is our very own Donald Trump and I worry about that kind of language when we have an election coming up."
ANN7
Ironically, ANN7 was the only tv channel broadcasting the comments made by Malema on live tv. eNCA only streamed the event in its entirety. However, once the comments were made, ANN7's assistant editor on duty decided to cut the feed to the event from the broadcast, whilst the journalists from ANN7 that attended the event remained behind.
ANN7 covered the story throughout the day. As aforementioned, editor Moegsien Williams appeared multiple times on air throughout the day to discuss the issue. The channel's ANN7 Prime debate of the day centered on the issue.
On the panel was Williams, who was joined by William Bird (Director, Media Monitoring Africa) and Moshoeshoe Monare (council member, SANEF).
Monare stated that it was unacceptable for a political party to victimise journalists based on who owns the media house they work for. He further echoed the sentiment of SANEF that Malema's remarks threaten freedom of expression.
Bird stated that if the party had issues with the media house, they should have raised the issue with management, not deal with it in the manner that they did.
Oddly, at the end of the debate, when it was time to reveal viewers' reply to the Question of the Day, "Can we allow Malema to incite hate against media organization?" more than two thirds of viewers who participated the poll voted 'yes,' which must have been very awkward for anchor Peter van Onselen to make sense of.
SABC News Channel
SABC News had an in depth discussion on the matter on their recently launched, really well done, new program, On The Record with Vuyo Mvoko. The discussion had a representitive of the EFF present, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, and a representitive from the South African national Editor's forum, Adriaan Basson, present.
Ndlozi continued to echo the sentiment among EFF members today that The New Age and ANN7 are not media, but instead are 'the communications department of the Gupta family masqerading as independent journalism.' He further stated that these news outlets serve only to normalise and legitimise the Guptas in South Africa today. He also stated that the EFF is conscious of the fact that this action puts the journalists that work at ANN7 and The New Age in the crossfire. Ndlozi did say these journalists are welcomed to EFF events in their personal capacity, but may not come in the name of the news outlets owned by the Gupta family.
Basson stated that SANEF are disappointed by the actions of the EFF and have previously perceived them to be welcoming to members of the press. He stated the organisation thought the actions were wrong and against the freedom of media freedom.
eNCA
South Africa's most watched news channel, eNCA, only covered the story as one element of the bigger story regarding the EFF's planned march against Zuma and the Guptas. In the report which included these comments from Malema, eNCA only ever mentioned 'media organisations owned by the Guptas,' not once referring to ANN7 or The New Age by name. A channel that stands up for press freedom in other countries barely gave airtime for press freedom here. [They really displayed a total lack of support to a fellow news organisation, even though that news organisation is a distant third to them when it comes to viewership, so they should not have feared losing many viewers by merely saying the word 'ANN7' on air ]
ANN7's primetime news bulletin now has another anchor, Peter van Onselen.
This follows Sebenzile Nkambule's silent exit from the channel at the start of the festive season. Since then, lunchtime anchor Chante Jantjies did primetime coverage over the festive season with Peter taking over in what is his now permanent slot from the 28th of December 2015.
Sebenzile had taken over the bulletin just a few months prior when Nzinga Qunta vacated that position, citing that she could not cope as a full time student and prime time news anchor simultaneously. Sebe then maintained two jobs: ANN7 prime anchor and 4am anchor on PowerFM, a position she still holds. But going by social media, Sebe almost never made it known that she was an ANN7 anchor, never promoting interviews or coverage on social networks like Twitter.
Before anchoring ANN7 Prime, van Onselen had been anchoring Vuka Africa since September 2013 and prior to that was a bulletin editor at what is now eNCA.
This now leaves Abigail Visagie as the solo anchor of ANN7's breakfast show, Vuka Africa, which airs weekdays between 6am and 8am.
The format of ANN7 Prime remains largely unchanged, with news headlines, debate and interviews, the only bulletin to do so on a daily basis.
Just weeks after the relaunch of ANN7 Prime, the channel has removed Candy Harris as the show's co anchor, opting to go solely with Sebenzile Nkambule instead.
When it launched with two hosts, both female, I remarked that the show seemed very messy having two moderators of the show's many debtates and two anchors speaking to the phone-in guests, which obviously led to incindents when the two spoke over each other.
Now Candy Harris has been, ironically, shifted to Sebenzile's old slot of mid morning news where she anchors solo and occasionally with a trainee anchor.
Candy Harris and Sebenzile Nkambule Anchor ANN7 Prime
ANN7's prime time news bulletin, ANN7 Prime, is now allowing viewers to call in live on air during the programme's on air discussions.
This as these discussions now seem to be extended for over half an hour (sometimes closer to an hour) with so many in studio panelists that some guests have to sit on the secondary set.
Though I am not totally against viewer call in shows, it has to be done right. One show that seems to do it perfectly is SABC News Channel's Question Time, which is definitely not the channel's orime time bulletin.
Though some callers raise valid talking points, like the young girl that called in thinking that the recent amendments to sex laws in the country made legal, many callers are given a national prime time platform to air their hate speech, things like Nigerians are ruining our country, among others.
The in studio discussions are now just way too long, often preempting sports news and many other stories, meaning that viewers looking for a summary of the day's top news stories now have to look elsewhere.
ANN7 should turn this whole extended debate call in format into a show of its own but it should no longer be branded as the channel's main news bulletin, because it very faintly resembles one.
[don't get me started on how the channel's news banners seem to now rival the Daily Sun: everything gets an exclamation mark, everything gets sensationalised]
With Nzinga Qunta out as ANN7 Prime anchor, ANN7 has taken the opportunity to shake up their anchor line up.
Sebenzile Nkambule and Candy Harris. ANN7 Prime, June 22nd 2015
Firstly, and most importantly, mid morning anchor, Sebenzile Nkambule, who joined the channel late last year from Radio 702 makes the giant leap to ANN7 Prime.
Following the success of the double anchor format of Vuka Africa with Peter van Onselen and Abigail Visagie, ANN7 Prime now too becomes double anchored. Sebenzile is joined behind the desk by ANN7 original, Candy Harris, who most recently anchored weekends.
I think their first broadcast together today, June 22nd, was a bit messy and can be cleaned up going forward. Then again that is what I have come to expect with ANN7 recently: things getting better with time. [I don't want to come across as old fashioned or anything, but two female anchors anchoring a news bulletin is not what I am used to, but will allow it to grow on me]
Chante Jantjies (ANN7's youngest permanent anchor), an ANN7 original who anchored the mid-morning slot before Sibenzile then moved to weekend breakfast because of her studies, takes over from Juliet Newell on Express Lunch, a bulletin Chante has occasionally anchored on Fridays. Express Lunch also changes from airing from 12pm to 2pm to airing from 12pm to 3pm, adding an hour. On leaving weekend Vuka Africa behind, she tweeted: "After a year .. my @ann7tv @VukaAfrica Weekend journey has ended. Thank you to all the early birds who tuned in :)"
The channel's late night block, 10pm to 12am, is now anchored by a rotation of trainee anchors, most of whom are from the ANN7 Anchor Search
The anchor of ANN7's Prime Time bulletin, ANN7 Prime, has resigned.
Nzinga Qunta announced this on her Twitter timeline earlier today (22 June 2015).
Qunta had been with ANN7 since the channel's start, initially as one of the rotating young anchors (most of whom were models, but there were great ones like Qunta among them) the channel hired. Within a few months, she was named the anchor of ANN7's Weekend Prime anchor. During the 2014 Election cycle, Qunta anchored the daily 2 hour programme, SA Decides, and also anchored the 10am block on election day. After this, she remained the channel's late afternoon block before being promoted to ANN7 Prime anchor in January of this year, filling the void left by Chantal Rutter Dros.
In addition to being ANN7's Prime anchor, the youngest prime time anchor on South African tv, Qunta has also been a full time student at Wits University this year.
Both of these, in my opinion, helped Qunta to do something better than most other anchors: connect organically with social media users.
As anchor of ANN7 Prime, Qunta has had the opportunity to anchor the channel's coverage of major events like this year's State of the Nation Address.
Her last night on air was June 19th last week.
[I won't lie, I initially wasn't the biggest fan of Nzinga's style, but then she started growing on me and it has been amazing just to see her grow in prime time. Plus she has my respect for being able to anchor a prime time news bulletin and be a full time student at the same time. Really going to miss her on screen]
She has been anchoring the show for two weeks now, currently her third, which included doing the channel's State of the Nation Address Coverage last Thursday.
Nzinga has been with ANN7 since the start of the channel and has previously been the anchor of the weekend edition of the show.
There is currently no word yet on what now happens to Juliet Newell who joined the channel in December and was even announced as the anchor of ANN7 Prime, replacing Chantal Rutter Dros who departed in December, but then lost that position barely a month later. At the moment, she does anchor a mere 30 minutes of news at 2pm on the channel, but that cannot last too long.
Nzinga, who is studying this year while being a Monday to Friday anchor at ANN7, now becomes the youngest anchor in South African prime time news. She is also the only anchor in prime time that is NOT a journalist, as she pointed out a while ago on Twitter, but based on her on screen presentation, one would not even notice.
In late December 2014, Juliet Newell joined ANN7 and anchored the channel's prime time bulletin ANN7 Prime. In mid January this year, she was named the official anchor of ANN7 Prime.
But now, for some reason, she has not anchored ANN7 Prime for well over a week, with Nzinga Qunta taking up that slot.
So where is Juliet? Anchoring the 2pm slot of news (which is an unbranded straight news bulletin), Nzinga's old slot.
Nzinga Qunta, who has been with ANN7 since inception, has anchored various slots over the year and a few months that the channel has been on air, including weekend prime time, before settling in the 2pm slot.
However, she decided to go back to university this year and has been off air for a while before reappearing as the Prime anchor last Monday
At this point, the channel has not stated whether the timeslot swap is permanent or not to accomodate Nzinga's studies, in the same way they accomodated Chanté Jantjies' studies by moving her off a daily slot to weekend breakfast anchor.
Juliet is still featured on the promotional material for ANN7 Prime, even though she has not appeared on the show in over a week.
Though it is not uncommon for news channels to shift anchors around (I last recall it happening at eNCA when Joanne Joseph was moved from Afternoon News to the midmorning slot), it is odd when it happens to the Prime Time anchor. Imagine Jeremy Maggs all of a sudden just starts anchoring eNCA's News Day with some other anchor takong his slot on News Night without eNCA stating why it is occuring.
Either way, viewers can see Nzinga Qunta is enjoying being the youngest prime time anchor on South African news. She smiles wider than she ever did before during the opening of ANN7 Prime, though I don't remember ever seeing her smile before and she does what Juloet doesn't: promote the heck out of the show on Twitter before it airs, informing her over 18 000 followers about who she is about to interview, something Juliet never did.
A few weeks ago I published an article asking whether Juliet Newell will be ANN7's permanent new anchor for ANN7 Prime after she started anchoring the show at the start of the festive season, though in rotation with other anchors.
Well, it seems as if the answer to that question is now yes.
Juliet Newell is now featured in promotional material for ANN7 Prime, appearing alongside Vuka Africa's Petet van Onselen and Express Lunch's Abigail Visage.
Juliet replaces Chantal Rutter Dros who anchored her final show on December 3rd 2014.
Juliet is a former anchor of etv's breakfast show and has also anchored on what is now know as BDTV.
In addition to that, she also has acting experience and is a former presenter at the Home Channel as well.
She now joins Peter Stemmet, who is ANN7 Prime's sports anchor (himself a former eNews guy). A business anchor is yet to be named after Tirrin Cosway departed from the channel last year (though my money is on former CNBC Africa anchor Natassia Arendse who herself has started anchoring on ANN7 in recent weeks).
For the past few weeks Juliet Newell has been anchoring ANN7's Prime on an on and off basis, alternating with the likes of Edwin Kgaswe and Gladys Sithole over the festive season.
But unlike Edwin Kgaswe and Gladys Sithole, Juliet has not been a member of ANN7 before she started appearing on the show.
It is unkown whether she would become ANN7 Prime's permanent new anchor, or whether she is just freelancing at the channel, as no information has been made available (and she is not exactly on social media either).
ANN7 Prime at the moment does not have an announced permanent anchor after the departure of Chantal Rutter Dros at the start of the month.
With ANN7 without a primetime since Chantal Rutter Dros left on the 3rd, I was wondering who would be the perfect replacement on a show that was slowly turning into my favourite news programme (because it is not the same news every 30 minutes and is different from the rest of day programming).
With the channel making the apparent financial cuts others have been reporting about, it is unlikely that they would bring someone in from outside the organisation. With all the rumors of what a bad workplace it is, it is unlikely a big name news personality would want to join.
So we therefore have to look within the ranks for the new anchor and tonight my personal pick for the position anchored the show: Gladys Sithole.
Out of all the "ANN7 Originals" (A term I personally use to refer to all the personalities that rose to prominence on the channel), she seems to be the one that has grown the most since the channel launched and she also does not have a dry personality either. SHe just has that "it" factor needed to anchor the primetime broadcast.
At the moment she is a news anchor on Gauteng's Hot FM (a position she took up a few months ago), anchors an afternoon block on ANN7 then comes back to work at 9pm for Africa Tonight, the show that immediately follows Prime.
ANN7 Prime's Business Anchor, Tyron "Tirrin" Cosway is leaving the station after 14 months. This follows the show's main anchor, Chantal Rutter Dros, who left the stationat the start of the month.
He initially joined the channel as a producer and quality controller, but was moved to be the channel's first, and only, business anchor, anchoring not only the business segments on Prime, but also the excellent social media segment (seen nowhere else).
His leaving the station is unrelated to Rutter Dros', as he will be immigrating to London.
This also means that Peter Stemmet, the show's sports anchor that has been sitting in the show's anchor seat on an interim basis, is the last person of what was an incredible cast on an incredible newscast that has now fallen apart.
Chantal Rutter Dros, the anchor of ANN7’s Prime bulletin,
and face of the channel, is leaving the channel after just more than a year.
She anchors her last bulletin for the channel tonight,
December 3rd.
She joined the channel at inception and, along with Gerry
Rantseli-Eldson, were the ‘faces’ of the channel that features mainly young,
inexperienced on air talent. Gerry left after just a few months, and now
Chantal is headed for the door as well.
The channel has constantly been going through major changes,
and even greater problems, but one thing that has been constant was that when
you tune in to ANN7 between 7pm and 9pm, Chantal would always be there
providing a very high quality news bulletin.
This comes as a major blow to the channel that was just starting
to find its groove and settle on a decent presentation. Though its on ait
talents have been improving lately, no one at the channel is exactly good
enough to be put in prime time.
Chantal also
co-hosted the channel’s South African of the Year Awards earlier this year with
Bonang Matheba, which was greatly praised by viewers.
Her departure is yet another in what has been a slew of
departures from the channel’s more senior off air staff, who include Clintin
Magoor, that worked mainly as an assignments editor for the channel.
She cites ‘personal reasons’ for leaving the channel and
plans to take December off. When asked what her future plans are beyond that,
she says she has yet to decide.
She tendered her resignation around November 24th, around the same time Asanda Magaqa left the channel.
It is expected that her main fill in anchor, sports anchor
Peter Stemmet, will be at the helm of ANN7 Prime until a permanent replacement
is named.
Some tweets on the departure:
Well it's my last Prime bulletin on @ann7tv tonight. Feeling quite emotional. Thank you to everyone for sharing this journey with me.
— Chantal Rutter Dros (@ChantalRutter) December 3, 2014
Michael Appel, who she did a lot of field reporting with, most notably the Oscar trial:
Nzinga Qunta has confirmed via Twitter that she is now the permanent anchor of ANN7's ANN7 Prime. The tweet can be seen below:
Avashnee Vandiar is ANN7's entertainment news editor, the entertainment anchor on ANN7 Prime and hosts East N Style on the channel on the weekends.