Thinus Ferreira
There's not a word about the delayed Pimville Queens from the SABC, with this new replacement series that was supposed to start in the timeslot of the cancelled Muvhango on SABC2 - a soap which itself ended later than announced due to SABC non-payment issues.
The SABC originally announced that the long-running and cancelled ratings loser Muvhango from Word of Mouth Pictures was to end on 8 August in a press release.
After non-payment and a production shutdown it forced a delay to the SABC2 schedule since Muvhango just disappeared without any episodes in June, with no warning or explanation from the SABC.
Muvhango therefore only really ended and broadcast its fnal episode this past Tuesday 12 August, after 26 seasons.
The SABC made no announcement about this final, real date, and there was no SABC press conference or media interaction to do a last publicity blitz and try to get good ratings for an on-screen property that delivered 4 893 episodes across its run to the South African public broadcaster.
After the SABC said that Pimville Queens from the notorious Bakwena Productions would replace Muvhango, the SABC suddenly slotted yet another repeat of Giyani in Muvhango's 21:00 timeslot on SABC2 since Wednesday night.
And again there's also been no announcement or prorgramming press release to the media about this from the SABC either.
In June, SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli said that "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".
At this moment it's however unclear when exactly Pimville Queens will really start on SABC2, given firstly the delayed ending of Muvhango.
Secondly, there is the padding of the schedule with repeats of old Giyani episodes in prime time since Pimville Queens is apparently not yet ready for broadcast, even after Muvhango ended late.
