The SABC’s rerun channel SABC Encore (DStv 156) will launch today on DStv with a mix of golden oldies ranging from Wielie Walie, Kideo and Louis’ Motors, to Zap Mag, S’gudi’s Naysi and Jam Alley.
The SABC failed to release a schedule to the press for SABC Encore or any detailed programming information related to it and had no official media event to launch the channel officially as is customary for channel additions.
I've however obtained the schedule ahead of its launch at 17:00 this afternoon, showing a programming line-up ranging from classics like Nommer Asseblief, Sonkring, Spies & Plessie, Orkney Snork Nie and Supersnuiters to rebroadcasts shown recently like Shaka Zulu on SABC3 and Ballade vir ‘n Enkeling which also started last month on DStv's kykNET & Kie channel.
Looking back, viewers, TV critics, South African historians and videographers who've never seen certain shows or want to indulge in old SABC programming again, will quickly be able to ascertain who the intended audience of the specific 70's, 80's and 90's shows were.
The South African public broadcaster which was bogged down in touting "his master's voice" of apartheid era political ideology strictly made programmes from its Auckland Park headquarters with only white people in it for whites on TV1, and programmes for black people with blacks in it for TV2 and TV3.
SABC Encore which will be available on all of MultiChoice's various DStv packages will also have a sprinkling from the SABC' archives of when the public broadcaster started to transition to a more multi-ethnic approach within shows.
From cushions to a kraai
Viewers will once again see Dali Thambo handling out cushions to his eclectic talk show guests in People of the South, the first successful multi-racial comedy Going Up set in a Cape Town law firm, the drama Molo Fish following the racial divides in South Africa, and Emzini Wesinziswa – a comedy chronicling the lives of miners from different ethnic groups who are roommates in a hostel, Room 8.
It's however some of the early years SABC local programming that could delight audiences of SABC Encore and which will make for fascinating viewing for the remarkable technical and production aspects which were of world class quality at the time and which the SABC largely lost over the past two decades like its world class puppetry division.
Outstanding puppetry creation and manipulation will be on display in Wielie Walie, a classic and long running Afrikaans children's show with its Bennie Boekwurm (Bennie bookworm), Karel Kraai and Sarel Seemonster for instance.
The SABC Encore schedule will be rounded out by travelogue Beckett's Trek, talk show Motswako – The Mix, environmental affairs show 50/50, glamorous lifestyle magazine show Top Billing, Afrikaans game show Noot vir Noot, and dramas ranging from Behind the Badge, Ubambo Lawmi, Westgate and Bophelo ke Semphekgo to Usenzekile.
SABC Encore will run for 24 hours a day on DStv with the public broadcaster's library titles which will be repeated in several repeat programming blocks during a given day.
