Juliet Newell has been dumped from prime time and moved to an afternoon timeslot less than a month after ANN7 (DStv 405) confirmed that Juliet Newell is the new prime time anchor taking over its flagship show ANN7 Prime after Chantal Rutter Dros left.
ANN7 confirmed in January that Juliet Newell is their new prime time anchor, saying she "is the new prime anchor for ANN7 Prime, weekly from 19:00 to 20:00".
Less than a month later she disappeared to ANN7's afternoon line-up, with the inexperienced TV news reader Nzinga Qunta, who is not a journalist, now anchoring prime time.
ANN7's Infinity Media has not responded with answers to multiple media enquiries made since mid-February about Juliet Newell's appearance and her abrupt and quick exit from its prime time slot and why it happened - nor about the young Nzinga Qunta who took over.
Nzinga Qunta has been with ANN7 since the TV news channel launched.
Meanwhile ANN7's relaunch of its morning breakfast show anchored by Peter van Onselen, Vuka Afrika between 06:00 and 09:00 on weekdays, has been pushed back yet again, already missing two previous deadlines for the revamped show to start.
ANN7 morning anchor Abigail Visagie was supposed to join Peter van Onselen from the beginning of March as part of a "new" Vuka Africa, but that deadline has now also come and gone.
Since launch ANN7 has battled to overcome issues of credibility and professionalism with ongoing on-air gaffes and a lack of transparency.
Meanwhile ANN7 which in 2014 saw a dramatic loss of executives and on-air talent as several TV reporters and anchors - unhappy with the TV channel - decided to leave, is yet again advertising for TV reporters.
ANN7 is looking for news reporters, political reporters, provincial reporters, as well as entertainment and features reporters with at least two years' experience in the industry to beef up the channel's news reporting.
