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.

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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.

All News Channels Carry President Zuma's Address about the Marikana Report

eNCA, SABC News Channel and ANN7 all provided extensive coverage about President Zuma's Address to the nation about the Marikana Report.

The speech ran for 32 minutes, from 7:02pm to 7:34pm.

eNCA's coverage was anchored by Jeremy Maggs, with a 2 man in studio panel. Their analysis included in studio debate as well as live crossings to Iman Rappetti who was with families of victims of the Massacre, and Thulasizwe Simelani who was at Parliament getting reaction from the likes of DA reps. Their analysis extended for well after the actual address and the channel ended up preempting this evenings edition of Money Line.
The semi final episode of Tech Report at 9:30pm also got preempted.

SABC News Channel's coverage was simulcast on SABC 2, preempting the Afrikaans News and part of the Sotho news. Their coverage was anchored by Vuyo Mvoko. Though I love the way they use Mvoko as the anchor of their bigger news events so that when viewers see him onscreen they know its big news, constantly benching their regular prime time anchors (Vabakshnee Chety and Peter Ndoro, who anchored this morning's The New Age Buiness Brief) is starting to show a lack of faith in the duo. SABC News Channel was the first of the broadcaster to go back to scheduled programming with Sports Live at 8:30pm

ANN7 Prime with Cand Harris, Sebenzile Nkambule, Ricky Naidoo

ANN7's buildup started well before 7pm, meaning that this evening's edition of Game On! was preempted and will instead be broadcast in its traditional repeat slot of 10:30pm. The coverage was anchored by the new ANN7 Prime anchors Sebenzile Nkambule and Candy Harris. Their three man in studio panel included political editor (and host of Straight Talk) Ricky Naidoo. They also had live crossings to Kevin Brandt who was outside parliament.


If you look at stills at the top of this article, you will see both eNCA and ANN7 both actually had to get the video feed from the SABC News Channel as the state broadcaster was the only one that was allowed to have a camera present at the address.
This led to the onscreen graphics on both eNCA and ANN7 becoming messy with their graphics superimposed upon the SABC's.
When the SABC put up their full lower thirds banner, eNCA decided to black out that part of the screen, leading to nearly a third of the screen being black (though it is technically more on tv's like mine with a letterboxed aspect ratio.

Then, in what I think is a dirty tactic on the part of the SABC News Channel to get free advertising, they decided to remove the small SABC News logo at the bottom of the screen, which was covered by eNCA's and ANN7's graphics and instead put up the massive graphic where the two independent stations couldn't hide it without making the screen too cluttered. They even put a solid backing on the usually transparent logo to make it more eye catching, something they had never done before.

It is really worrying when only one broadcaster, the public broadcaster, is allowed to have a camera at an address by the president of the camera as it could lead to censorship: if that one SABC News Channel camera gets cut for whatever reason, no one outside of the venue would have access to it.