Sunday, December 8, 2013

Stedman Graham, Richard Engel, Lester Holt, Jeremy Thompson, Jon Sopel, Komla Dumor in South Africa after Nelson Mandela's death.


Blink and you'll have missed him, but Stedman Graham, the partner of Oprah Winfrey showed up on South Africa television on Sunday in the church service broadcast on SABC1 where president Jacob Zuma addressed the South African nation following the death of Nelson Mandela.

Stedman Graham co-incidentally happened to be in South Africa when Nelson Mandela died - he arrived here a while ago to do a city-by-city tour through South Africa to discuss his Identity Leadership concept.

Stedman Graham could be seen sitting just behind and to the side of Mamma Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at the Bryanston Methodist Church in Johannesburg on Sunday morning.

Stedman Graham will likely remain in South Africa, and will most likely be joined by Oprah Winfrey in attending the memorial service and funeral of Nelson Mandela later this coming week.

Other international TV notables as part of the foreign TV correspondent influx who are now in South Africa due to Nelson Mandela's death include Sky News' (DStv 402) Jeremy Thompson who is already anchoring Nelson Mandela coverage.

Sky News' Stuart Ramsay has also travelled to South Africa and has gone to Qunu in the Eastern Cape to report from there. Of course Sky News Alex Crawford and Emma Hurd who are helping out, are based here.

South Africa's David McKenzie, CNN International's (DStv 401) correspondent in China has also returned home on Saturday and will be filing stories and covering Nelson Mandela news from South Africa during the upcoming week.

From CNN International coming to South Africa to report on Nelson Mandela's death and funeral week is Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper, with Isha Sesay flying in, as well as Arwa Damon and even Chris Cuomo.

Together with Errol Barnett, Robyn Curnow and David McKenzie, this gives CNN International the biggest correspondent reach within South Africa all dedicated to covering all angles and aspects of the Nelson Mandela story.

Travers Andrews is South Africa and based in Cape Town and is covering the news for CCTV News (DStv 409 / StarSat 403).

NBC News' chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is here in South Africa as well, as is Lester Holt, who reported and anchored on Saturday night for the American newscast from Soweto. Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News which can be seen on CNBC Africa (DStv 410) is on his way to South Africa and will anchor Tuesday and Wednesday's news bulletins from Pretoria.

From BBC World News (StarSat 400 / DStv 400) now in South Africa are Komla Dumor and Jon Sopel. Ros Atkins flew in last week meaning to go to Lesotho. When Nelson Mandela died he made a U-turn back to Soweto and is still here for the upcoming week.

ABC News in America has Alex Marquardt and Byron Pitts reporting from South Africa on Nelson Mandela.

Greg Palkot, the senior foreign affairs correspondent for Fox News Channel (StarSat 405), usually based in London, is in South Africa.

Al Jazeera (StarSat 401 / DStv 406) dispatched Mike Hanna and Jonah Hull to South Africa. Mike Hanna covered South Africa as a CNN International journalist during apartheid and the post-apartheid era. Jonah Hull is Al Jazeera's correspondent in London.

CBS News now has Allen Pizzey in Johannesburg, reporting for the CBS Evening News (which can be seen on Sky News.

Debora Patta from South Africa, reported for the CBS Evening News for the third night in a row from Johannesburg.