by Thinus Ferreira
After 28 years the SABC has finally cancelled Muvhango with the long-running Venda weeknight soap from Word of Mouth Pictures, which will be replaced by a new telenovela called Pimville produced by Bakwena Productions.
SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli says "For SABC2 we're introducing a new telenovela starting in August, which is going to be replacing the existing Muvhango".
"We are certain that, based on the storyline and where we are in the scriptwriting room, this should also be successful from a launch perspective."
The SABC has failed to reach its own content output targets for SABC2 for the second, third and fourth quarters, as well as annually for the previous financial year.
Nomsa Chabeli says SABC2's audience share during primetime is down and she says it's because of the SABC's massive repeats and rebroadcasts of content.
"Because we don't have fresh, new content, we have to repeat existing content. We have that lack of fresh, local properties that are a key driver of South African audiences."
"Come August, we are launching a new telenovela called Pimville on SABC2, and based on that we will be really driving that audience share back to SABC2. We're working hard to ensure that the script is relevant for the audiences and that the storyline is going to be effectively doing what we need it to do," Nomsa Chabeli says.
A "final farewell" is now planned for Muvhango which made its debut on the SABC in April 1997.
Last year the SABC effectively also cancelled Muvhango when the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster had the contract for a shortened half-season of just 130 episodes from Word of Mouth Pictures run out.
While SABC2 was forced into on-screen repeats of archive episodes, the SABC and Word of Mouth Pictures then negotiated for another single but full-season order of 260 episodes of Muvhango.
That led to the cancelled Muvhango being revived for another season but done cheaper and with cosmetic changes like newand cast additions and other changes, including adding Xitsonga-speaking actors, and a belatedly introduced new opening title sequence.
None of this helped as the returned, cheaper and retooled Muvhango was a ratings dud after its announced starting date was amateurishly pushed out. It does however remain as SABC2's most-watched show with around 900 000 viewers.
This 900 000 viewers are however very far off from the over 4 million viewers per episode Muvhango used to get on SABC2 years ago.
Muvhango fell in 2024 from a high of 1.6 million viewers to under 923 000 by the end of last year.
When it returned in August 2024, Muvhango only kept bleeding viewers, sliding from 1.32 million in July to just 1.084 million later in August when it returned for a new season, and continuing its viewer erosion to under a million viewers nightly in the months after that.
Lala Tuku, the SABC's head of video entertainment, last year said the SABC had reservations and "challenges" around its decision to bring back Muvhango.
Lala Tuku said shows like Muvhango need to perform ratings-wise to bring in advertising revenue or risk being replaced, which is what happened with SABC2's cancelled 7de Laan.
A few months after Muvhango was back on air with new episodes on SABC2, Word of Mouth Pictures once again had to shut down production over non-payment to writers, cast and crew - something that had afflicted Muvhango numerous times over the past two decades .
Muvhango background actors are also demanding payment they haven't received yet from Nonkululeko Ndlovu's Turning Heads Casting Agency.
Nonkululeko Ndlovu is the daughter of the troubled Duma Ndlovu who created Muvhango.
Duma Ndlovu has been charged with tax evasion totalling R25 million and he appeared in court in October 2024.
Pimville, also known as Pimville Queens is produced for the SABC by Bakwena Productions, notorious for payment problems to cast and crew of Paramount Africa's Pound 4 Pound drama series that was on BET (DStv 129).
It's not clear why the South African public broadcaster decided to get into business with Bakwena Productions of Kagiso Modupe, Rashaka "Rush" Moufhe and Brenda Mukwevho, when the SABC has been aware of the production company's payment issues with service providers, as well as actors and crews who have demanded payment.
