by Thinus Ferreira
On Wednesday night, TRACe held some type of launch event for its rebranded Trace Ngoma (DStv 326) TV channel on Canal+'s MultiChoice DStv platform, although it failed to tell media and journalists covering TV anything about it or that it would take place.
Trace rebranded Trace Africa to Trace Ngoma in December 2025, and now, three months later, decided to have some type of a rebranding launch event for it.
In December, Olivier Laouchez, co-founder and Trace CEO, in a statement, said "Trace Ngoma is where music meets identity. It amplifies the rhythms and stories that define South African culture and gives young people a space to connect and feel seen".
On Wednesday, Trace Southern Africa had the cheek to ask on its social media account on X, formerly known as Twitter, to ask "If you are not here where are you?!" - apparently too stupid to realise that media trying to cover TRACE and not aware of, and not told beforehand that something would happen, will be even more put off and care less about the channel in response to TRACE's basically non-existent media liaison efforts.
Somebody who was invited and who was told about the Trace Ngoma event was Willington Ngwepe, MultiChoice South Africa CEO and DStv Media Sales.
In a video recorded on Wednesday night by someone who attended, Willington Ngwepe is seen saying "It's a very special evening for us. Today we're celebrating the evolution of a brand. This brand has been a very stable offering on our linear broadcasting offering on DStv".
Willington Ngwepe noted "a partnership of over 23 years" that he sees "getting stronger and stronger for another 23 years" and said Trace is becoming "an anchor of the creative digital economy".
Olivier Laouchez, likely also spoke but it's not known what he said.
At the event, Trace apparently also talked about some type of app it has, but information about what was said about it wasn't shared.
Three months in, industry observers and advertisers have said they're still unsure of what Trace Ngoma is now and why the rebrand happened, with very little reporting industry reporting about it.
