by Thinus Ferreira
BET Africa's new Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza biographical drama series looks like another low-level dud from Paramount Africa, given the apparent lazy and lacklustre effort from Paramount Africa and BET to try and do proper publicity for the 6-episode series or to get any real media attention and press traction for it.
Unbeknownst to a lot of media covering TV who were not told that it would be happening, last week sometime Paramount Africa and BET held a physical premiere and screening for Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza, a dramatised series about the life of the late South African kwaito singer Mduduzi Edmond Tshabalala, which is a co-production between Biopic Films and Pomegranate Media with Wiseman Mncube in the title role.
Executive produced by Mpho Tshabalala, Mandoza's widow, and Vaugh Eaton who was his manager, Paramount Africa and BET couldn't bother with any virtual media engagement like roundtable interviews over Zoom with the cast and production, and completely failed to reach out to media to ask if they're interested in interviews or doing anything around the show.
Invited media to the premiere got to see some of the content beforehand but media not aware of the physical screening were not sent digital screeners automatically either before the premiere event or afterwards for possible review or reporting purposes.
In fact, for media not invited to the Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza media event and screening in Johannesburg there was absolutely nothing to promote the upcoming new 6-episode show - except for a single email blast to the media list on 18 July. There were no calls, no emails, no personal relationship building or communication. Nothing.
Now Paramount Africa and BET Africa expect... what? Reams of coverage, reviews, interviews and stories for Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza, directed by Zuko Nodada? How? From out of what? What effort?
Absolutely nothing was shared by Paramount Africa and BET Africa of what any of the cast or Monde Twala, senior vice president and general manager for Paramount Africa and lead for BET International said at the event. No transcripts, no recordings.
BET isn't a Johannesburg community TV station like GauTV but while its content is seen across sub-Saharan Africa, Paramount Africa apparently couldn't involve media beyond just Johannesburg in terms of personal outreach around publicity and coverage for Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza.
It's as if Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza is some fly-by-night production done on a shoe-string budget for a community TV station.
Will it be better, the same or worse than the BET Original Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story? Who knows?
Paramount Africa and BET Africa certainly didn't go out of its way in any way to try and create any impression whatsoever about it with me or with any of a handful of other journalists and critics covering television, or to get some of their time and attention to engage with this new local content.
Last week, after I surprisingly saw that BET Africa had a media event and screening for Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza I reached out to other journalists also covering BET Africa and Paramount Africa and asked them if they knew anything about it. Nobody did.
I then took the initiative to reach out to Thabo Mboweni, media specialist at Vuma Reputation Management about Paramount Africa and BET Africa's Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza.
Paramount Africa pays Vuma Reputation Management to handle its corporate communications.
I asked Thabo Mboweni and Vuma Reputation Management these four questions for a report about Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza, and said answers will be published with the questions in a Q&A form.
The questions are these:
1. I saw that Paramount Africa/BET held a physical
premiere and screening earlier this week but I wasn’t aware of it, or made
aware of it beforehand – in other words there was no communication at all
about this. Why couldn't BET tell media that there was going to be a screening
or a media event in advance in order for media to do planning around it?
2. What is Paramount Africa and BET’s strategy or
expectation regarding press reviews? The show was screened at the media event
but what about media who wasn't there? Why does BET not make digital screeners
available to media in South Africa in advance, or does BET believe the content
is bad or of a low quality, or does BET want media only to watch content once
it airs on TV, i.e. not before broadcast?
3. Does Paramount Africa/BET have transcripts or
recordings available of what was said at the media event and screening, or how
do media cover or are helped to report on what was said there?
4. Why did Paramount Africa/BET not do any roundtable
interviews with the cast/crew for media?
Thabo Mboweni said he would forward the media query to the Total Exposure PR agency "who handles the brand channels". This was on Thursday last week. There's not been any specific answers to any of these specific questions I raised, to publish with these questions.
Natalie Mdladla, senior director of communications at Paramount Africa, emailed to say that Paramount Africa does plan to share an episode with media who were not at the event. Natalie said that the episode was only delivered on Tuesday afternoon and that a viewing link will be shared.
Images from the launch event were shared as a download link. The speech that Mpho Tshabalala gave was shared. Monde Twala's speech wasn't shared.
A rundown was shared of what happened at Paramount Africa and BET Africa's Nkalakatha: The Life of Mandoza event:
- Started with a speech from Monde Twala who
spoke to how special the project is to us and how important it is that we
tell our heroes’ stories. He thanked Mpho Tshabalala and Vaughn Eaton
(Mandoza’s manager) for their guidance, he thanked our partners;
production companies, Biopic Films and Pomegranate Media and the DTIC.
- Screening of the first episode
- Speech by Mpho Tshabalala (her three children
Tokollo, Tumelo and Karabo joined her on stage)
- Performance by Mandoza’s son Tumelo (stage
name is Harry). He performed ‘Soweto Boy’. He is following in his father’s
footsteps and his mom is his manager.
- Performance by Chizkop cast (Wiseman Mncube, Fanele Zulu, Lindo Sithole) and original Chizkop member Mfana “Montigo” Sithebe. They performed Nkalakatha and Abasazi.
