All local news channels cover the first anniversary of the passing of Nelson Mandela

eNCA, SABC News and ANN7 all had rolling coverage today of the first anniversary of the passing of former president Nelson Mandela.

While the 24 hour news channels devoted vast resources to cover the event, the free to air channels that usually carry major local news and 'offical events,' SABC 2 and eTV, decided not to touch their regular schedule to cover the event, opting to stick to its normal news bulletins. Not even for the 10am moment of silence did any free to air broadcaster hold their schedule to inform the nation that it is now the moment of silence.

On the news channels, all anchors anchored heir usual slots, with much more reporters on the ground at various key points. All news channels also carried the proceedings at the Union Buildings live and for the great deal in its entirety.

Cyril Ramaphosa on eNCA, ANN7 and SABC News at same time

The official programme at the Union Buildings, which were emceed by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa ended at 12:55 with Joanne Joseph picking things up for eNCA, Abigail Visagie picked things up  at ANN7 while SABC News stayed with live visuals for a while longer. All channels went to an ad break just before one, with all regular lunchtime shows picking up at 1pm.

SABC News
On SABC news, Chriselda Lewis reported from the Centre of Remembrance this morning while Vuyo Mvoko and Matiba Mutheiwana were at Freedom Park (Side note: I must say I absolutely LOVE the way the SABC uses Mvoko only on special occasions. When he is on tv, you know something major is happening)

SABC News'Vuyo Mvoko was at Freedom Park

SABC News was the first broadcaster to break away from memorial coverage to show other news, which today included news on the SABC Chairperson and Eskom, and even sports news. Though you could say it is their responsibility as the state broadcaster to broadcast state affairs, one has to remember that the one oçlock bulletin is available to people that do not have access to a 24 hour news service and therefore it is their job to inofrm about other news as well, while eNCA instead opted to focus the entire part of their bulletin that is available to non DStv subscribers to Nelson mandela, with sports in its normal slot, leaving free to air viewers in the dark when it came to news from Eskom.

eNCA
eNCA's regular anchors did their regular slots, only with Joanne Joseph using the main side of eNCA's set and not the side where her slot is usually done from (She also looked rather nice today, I might add).
As has become tradition at eNCA with major news stories, any double anchored show will have one anchor in studio whilst the other is on location. For Morning News Today, Uveka Rangappa was in studio while Dan Moyane was at Freedom Park.
For News Day, Bhavna Singh (who I now notice does very little, if any actual reporting and interviews) was in studio while Andrew Barnes was on Robben Island.

Other reporters for the channel included Thulasizwe Simelane, who was at the Union Buildings where he was the channel's on the ground reporter at the official proceedings while Xoli Mngambi is in Qunu. Lester Kiewit was at the V & A Waterfront and social media editor, Gareth Edwards, covered the Mandela Legacy Cup, which is to be contested between the Proteas and the Springboks.
The channel also featured historical poets adding a bit of variety between all the interviews.

eNCA anchor, Dan Moyana, recorded an interview with Nelson Mandela's former personal assistant, Zelda le Grange. The interview was featured throughout the day.

ANN7
Hajra Omarjee, who tweeted that she woke up at 1am,was at Freedom Park along with Kalden Ongmu while Avumile Qongqo is in Qunu. Clement Manathela was at the Union Buildings as well.
ANN7 was the only channel to have broken out of live coverage of the proceedings at the Union Buildings for a short interview in studio, which was rather silly of them to do.

ANN7's Nzinga Qunta in studio while Paskiekar Modliar was at the wonderers and Avumile Qongqo was in Qunu.

As the day progressed, ANN7 eased into more long format reports on the life and passing of Mandela. I must say I hate these massive borders ANN7 uses.

At 4pm, SABC News and ANN7 seemed to go with 'regular' news instead, with Eskom's power outages as the main headline.

All of MNet's channels, including the Afrikaans Kyknet had the Hashtag #RememberingMadiba onscreen throughout the day, while eNCA's #RememberMandela was the number one Trending Topic in SA throughout the day.

Supersport's news channel, Supersport Blitz, aired inserts on Mandela and sports throughout the day, and had an in memorium banner intergrated into its graphics. They also re aired a documentary on Mandela throughout the day on various Supersport channels that did not have any live sports to show.

Local Channels Planning Wall-To-Wall Coverage for the First Anniversary of Mandela's Passing

eNCA, SABC News and ANN7 are all planning rolling coverage for the first anniversary of the passing of former President Nelson Mandela tomorrow, December 5th 2014.

All channel will for some odd reason be starting their broadcasting day one hour earlier at 5am instead of 6am with their breakfast shows manning the extra hour.

eNCA, who will be using the Hashtag #RememberMandela, will have reporters live at all the key points around the country, including the Eastern Cape and Freedom Park. They will also be live streaming their coverage at enca.com

SABC News' star reporter Chriselda Lewis is already providing live reporting from Houghton.

ANN7's Vuka Africa will have reporters Hajra Omarjee at Freedom Park in Tswane and Avumile Qongqo reporting live with the likes of Clement Manyathela also contributing

All channels' coverage will consist mainly of tribute videos and interviews.

The Springboks vs Proteas in a T20 match will be broadcast live on Supersport 2.
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Special Freedom Day Boradcasts

As we celebrate 20 years of Freedom in our country, various channels are planning special programming to commemorate the event, our first without our first democartically elected president Nelson Mandela.

As expected, SABC News will be carrying the carrying the 'official proceedings' live from the Union Buildings at 10am, simulcast on SABC 2.

eNCA will be re-airing the documentary The Blood Miracle at 1pm and again at 9pm. Their special coverage starts at 8am with special guests and senior anchors being brought in.

All three local news channels will have special coverage throughout the day.

Carte Blanche (Mnet, 7pm) will be airing Carte Blanche: 20 Years of Democracy. The synopsis is as follows :"
In the run up to the first democratic elections in 1994, a fearless breed of young photojournalists roamed the townships of Tokoza and Katlehong on Johannesburg’s East Rand, documenting a civil war that caused hundreds of deaths and displacement. 

Now, two decades later, these middle-aged and hardened lens-men remember that pivotal era of transition and the man who led the pack. 

Ken Oosterbroek died in a hail of bullets in the streets of Tokoza just days before the election, leaving a legacy of definitive photographs of those dark and dangerous days. This Sunday Carte Blanche looks back at a time etched in blood. "

Mzansi Magic has the documentary Countdown to Freedom at various times on Sunday and throughout the week on their group of channels. The synopsis is as follows: "Countdown To Freedom, a ground breaking documentary which was filmed 20 years ago in April 1994 at the personal invitation of then President in Waiting, Nelson Mandela, will be broadcast for the first time on television on Freedom Day, Sunday, 27 April on Mzansi Magic at 16:00. "

Kyknet has various special editions of their programs Jukebox (focussing on music in a free South Africa), Toks 'n  Tjops (Focusing on Sport in the new South Africa) and Robinsons Regstreeks (focussing on the upcoming elections).

 PERSONAL ANALYSIS: The Mzansi group of channels along with Vuzu, all local channels, all have special on air idents celebrating 20 years of freedom. I find that it is quite eyebrow raising that not one of the local channels that do not have primarily black target markets have on air logos like these channels. These include Kyknet and MNet, all of which have versions exculsive to the South African market. Do viewers of these channels not celebrate Freedom Day? The excuse that those channels are broadcast in other countries does not stand considering that we often see on air idents celebrating freedom in other countries on the Africa Magic channels yet here they seem to be 'protecting' the rest of the continent from knowing that South Africa is celebrating Freedom Day.

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.