by Thinus Ferreira
Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405) is staffing up with Zulu and Xhosa speaking journalists as the South African TV news channel plans to introduce and roll out news reports and TV news bulletins in isiZulu and isiXhosa from 2023.
Newzroom Afrika's upscaling in dedicated TV news coverage in Nguni languages comes after the South African public broadcaster inexplicably dropped all of the other South African languages from its SABC News (DStv 404) channel in April 2015 which was a huge asset to the channel.
eMedia's eNCA (DStv 403) also tried and failed and then abandoned its own short-lived experiments with producing and delivering TV news in Xhosa and Zulu.
Newzroom Afrika, run by Thabile Ngwato and Thokozani Nkosi's Ngwato Nkosi Group, is now advertising and looking for field reporters who can speak Zulu and Xhosa, and is also looking for isiZulu and isiXhosa bulletin editors.
The Randburg-based TV news channel is also looking to hire executive producers who are fluent in isiXhosa and isiZulu.
Newzroom Afrika says the new staffers it plan to hire who will report in Zulu and Xhosa will create news stories in these languages "that set Newzroom Afrika apart from other broadcasters in South Africa and beyond".
The closing date for applications for the stack of new job openings at Newzroom Afrika are all in mid-December.
