NO APRIL FOOL'S JOKE. SABC3 in yet another massive schedule shake-up as the channel's line-up is rejigged for the 3rd time in a year from April.

 In a desperate attempt to lift ratings, stem its ongoing viewership slide and slow its cash drains the SABC will announce yet another very dramatic schedule shake-up for its loss-making SABC3 channel that will come into effect from 1 April.

It’s no SABC April Fool's joke: SABC3's latest upcoming schedule shake-up will be the SABC's third for the struggling and loss-making channel in just a year.

SABC3's shake-up follows sister channel SABC2's latest big schedule change that was introduced in February and that angered a large number of viewers – SABC2's sixth big schedule shake-up since mid-2014.

Just as with currency fluctuations in an economy, public and commercial transport commuter timetables, and even a family's nightly dinner time, stability and predictability over time of a broadcaster's TV schedule – or the lack of it – is a strong indicator and signal to the organisational and systemic health or chaos behind the scenes.

Constant and erratic TV schedule changes – the SABC for instance again disrupted all three of its TV channel's schedules in January for Afcon 2017 coverage – confuse viewers who are creatures of habit and who struggle to find their shows and what they want to watch.

With every major TV schedule change of the SABC, some viewers sample competitor channels and programming, find new favourites, form new habits and never return.

SABC3 saw its ratings tank the past nine months following the SABC’s controversial former chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng's abrupt decree of 80% local content that was haphazardly introduced on the channel since July 2016. The badly implemented move saw viewers flee, viewership fall and then advertisers leaving.

The SABC introduced big schedule changes for SABC3 in April 2016, followed by yet another dramatic schedule shake-up just three months later in July 2016 – with a new SABC3 logo and-on air look.

That was also when Motsoeneng – now still currently employed by the SABC but ordered to stay at home with no job title – wreaked havoc on the cash-strapped SABC3 by abruptly ordering a decree of 80% local content for the SABC's only commercial TV channel.

Not a single one of the new and mostly badly produced local shows introduced on SABC3 since July 2016, except for a new season of Neill Anthony Private Chef, managed to lure enough viewers to crack SABC3's most watched month-on-month ratings list.

With disastrous AR's (audience ratings) in prime time for the batch of new content, the SABC still had to splash the cash to produce the ratings-failed content that viewers flipped the switch on.

The new SABC3 schedule shake-up is the first under SABC TV boss, Nomsa Philiso. 

She was appointed as the SABC's new head of television in August 2016 to replace the veteran Verona Duwarkah who was abruptly fired for refusing Hlaudi Motsoeneng's allegedly irregular content orders and dubious production contracts and reportedly accused him of of harassment and gross mismanagement.

There's growing buzz that the SABC could perhaps be shuttering the beleaguered SABC3 before the end of the year, while insiders are wondering how the SABC wants to programme and run its promised five additional new TV channels for digital terrestrial television (DTT) if it is struggling to keep the three existing channels on the air and just three schedule line-ups filled that's already stuffed with repeats.

Zandile Nkonyeni, SABC TV publicist, was asked about talk that SABC3 might be shutting down, what the situation is around SABC3's future, and what assurance there is from the SABC to viewers about the channel, but she didn't respond. 

Major programming moves

Now the SABC is again tinkering with SABC3's schedule in another big shake-up.

According to insiders, SABC3 will announce that it is switching a large number of its shows' timeslots with viewers who will once again have to adjust their viewing patterns.

SABC3 will introduce yet another new swathe of local content – some with dubious public broadcasting value – as it also gets ready to dump late night and overnight repeats to cut back on rebroadcast fees, cancels long-running programming like Interface and even moves its news bulletin, The Bold and the Beautiful, Top Billing, Special Assignment and other shows yet again to new times and days.

Zandile Nkonyeni was asked why SABC3 is doing yet another big schedule change again and what prompted the latest shake-up. She failed to comment.

SABC3's latest schedule do-over stretches from the very early morning to late night.

SABC3 will cut its breakfast show Expresso back by half an hour, with the morning show that will move from 06:00 to a new starting time of 6:30 in mid-April. SABC3 is also slowly moving the beloved American soap Days of Our Lives back from its midnight banishment to an earlier timeslot.

Here’s what’s happening on SABC3 from April

Major coming SABC3 changes from April include:

 ■ Expresso is being reduced again, back to two and a half hours, after its timeslot was increased in July 2016 to three hours. From Monday 17 April Expresso is set to start half an hour later at 6:30 to make space for a half hour of kids programming at 6:00 on weekdays.

■ The existing line-up of SABC3's 09:00 hour of repeats is dumped for repeats on weekdays of Real Talk with Anele from Monday 3 April.

■ After taking away the Venda-language soap Muvhango repeat on SABC3 in July 2016, it is suddenly back – at 11:30 on weekdays.

■ The weekday chatter, Afternoon Express that was moved from 16:00 to 17:00 in July 2016 as part of a failed experiment, will move back to 16:00 from Monday 3 April.

■ Real Talk with Anele gets upgraded and moves from 16:00 to 17:00. Basically Afternoon Express and Real Talk with Anele are switching timeslots, with SABC3 now believing that Real Talk – that constantly attracts more buzz – has more potential to lure a bigger actual audience.

■ The SABC is once again moving the public broadcaster's flagship daily TV news bulletin on SABC3 that's been hammered in the ratings and that shed tens of thousands of viewers over the past few months.

The news at 18:30 on SABC3 is once again becoming News @ 6 from April – a simulcast of the news done on DStv's SABC News (DStv 404) channel with anchors Peter Ndoro and Francis Herd.

■ That knock-on effect means that the American soap The Bold and the Beautiful is also once again shifting timeslots – from 18:00 to 18:30 on weekdays on SABC3 from Monday 3 April.

■ The hugely popular The Bold and the Beautiful, perennially the most watched show on SABC3, will now serve as the lead-in for the struggling local soap Isidingo that stays put at 19:00. SABC3 hopes that Bold’s buoyant viewership will filter through to the Endemol Shine Africa produced Isidingo.

■ The local talker Trending South Africa that started in daytime on SABC3, switched to night time and then got a 12:00 weekday repeat, is getting cut down from five days to four episodes per week, losing the Friday episode.

Trending SA will also no longer get any daytime repeat on SABC3 from April but will see its broadcast timeslot move half an hour earlier from 22:00 to 21:30.

■ From Thursday 6 April Top Billing sees yet another timeslot change in the glam magazine show long broadcast history – moving from 20:00 to 20:30.

■ SABC3's investigative magazine show Special Assignment is once again moving in April – this time from Wednesdays at 21:30 to Mondays at 21:00.

■ SABC3's long running Sunday night current affairs interview show Interface at 21:30 is apparently abruptly getting axed. Interface's last episode will be on Sunday 2 April, thereafter replaced by a celebrity-driven type profile show entitled Celebuville in the same timeslot from Sunday 8 April.

  

Flurry of unknown new local content

Instead of phasing individual new shows in over time to help them gain viewer recognition and support, SABC3 is unleasing a next new wave of unknown local content from April as part of the latest schedule shake-up.

This programming will all compete at the same time for viewers' attention, battling each other to stand out in a crowded nightly 19:30 to 21:30 timeslot.

The previously announced channel switch from SABC1 to SABC3 of Clover's latest season of the advertiser-funded production (AFP), Tropika Island of Treasure Seychelles will start on SABC3 on Monday 27 March at 19:30.

While TVwithThinus saw it already and this show's production values look much improved, the same can't be said for new and unknown SABC3 shows like the female presented car maintenance and driving test show Driving in Heels starting Tuesday 4 April at 21:00, Hostess with Lorna Maseko starting Tuesday 4 April at 20:30, and the food competition reality show Dinner Date set to start on Wednesday 5 April at 19:30.

After several pushbacks the delayed Uyanda It’s On that was originally scheduled for 2016 is finally set to start on SABC3 on Wednesday 5 April at 21:00. 

The reality show follows the former SABC1 publicist and socialite Uyanda Mbuli and her various worldwide luxury indulgences captured on video for public broadcasting consuption.

Friday 7 April will finally see the start of the new SABC3 half hour sitcom Soap on a Rope at 19:30 that was also originally supposed to start in August 2016 on the channel. The comedy stars Luthuli Dlamini, Melanie du Bois, Alfred Ntombela and Sonia Sedibe and is set on a fictitious TV show's set.

Publicist Zandile Nkonyeni was asked why SABC3 is introducing another batch of new local programming in a burst and what the programming strategy is behind the move but she failed to respond.

Late night changes

Days of Our Lives on SABC3 is moving from midnight to an earlier timeslot of 22:30 from 3 April.

The late night Isidingo and The Bold and the Beautiful repeats are both dumped in favour of the German TV news service Deutsche Welle that will now start at 23:30 and run until 02:00 in the morning.

From 02:00 the SABC’s feed of the SABC News channel on DStv will be simulcast overnight with the repeat of American TV series that used to be at 03:30 that's all getting axed in the latest shake-up.

SABC accused of 'blacklisting' again; 'disinvite' commentator and former SABC anchor Eusebius McKaiser from show after critical column.

Is the SABC back to blacklisting press and commentators? That’s what South Africa's media is wondering yet again after the SABC withdrew an invitation to commentator Eusebius McKaiser to appear on a talk show after a newspaper column of his this week was critical of ANC leaders.

Eusebius McKaiser said he was "uninvited" on Tuesday as a guest on the SABC's AM Live show, after he wrote a column critical of President Jacob Zuma, police minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and other senior ANC leaders. He blasted them for not speaking out about the ongoing Nkandlagate scandal.

Eusebius McKaiser's newspaper column appeared on Monday in the Independent Media group's The Star newspaper.

According to Eusebius McKaiser - who once anchored the weekly actuality magazine show Interface on SABC television - “"a producer of AM Live's debate slot after 08:00 called me to uninvite me because he was instructed from higher up that my criticism of senior ANC leaders remaining silent about Nkandlagate should not be discussed on Sakina Kamwendo's show".

Eusebius McKaiser said Sakina Kamwendo's integrity remained intact but that people should "spare a thought for her and others doing daily battle at the SABC to have the space to be honest professionals".

"What irks me is that the SABC belongs to South Africa. It's not commercial media and so has a greater duty to be a public broadcaster and certainly not a state broadcaster".

"We need to push back against these rotting tendencies," wrote Eusebius McKaiser on his Facebook page.


Blacklisting ‘alarming’
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago didn't respond to requests for comment about the apparent "disinviting" of Eusebius McKaiser.

The independent public pressure group SOS Coalition, made up of a spectrum of civil society stakeholders committed to free, fair and quality public broadcasting in South Africa, described the incident as "alarming".

"We all remember what the blacklisting scandal of 2006 did to the public's confidence in the SABC. Are we really reliving this again and so soon?" asks Sekoetlane Phamodi, SOS Coalition spokesperson.

"The SOS Coalition has repeatedly warned the public about the direction the SABC is going with its de facto 70% good news policy," says Sekoetlane Phamodi.

"It's alarming, although unsurprising, that commentators are claiming they are being blacklisted from the national public broadcaster because they hold views which do not suit the state and government."

"The SABC's editorial policies were reviewed 11 years ago and are, by law, now 6 years out of date, but remain specific about balanced reporting and commentary."

"Once again, the SABC higher-ups have interpreted this to restrict reporting that suits their own political agenda, giving the impression that the SABC is under the firm control of Luthuli House," says Sekoetlane Phamodi.

Public broadcasting expert and media researcher Kate Skinner tells TV with Thinus that "since the blacklisting crisis there has been a steady stream of censorship cases and these are often linked to critical political moments – for instance around the ANC's Mangaung conference and then around the May 2014 elections, which saw the banning of opposition adverts and the censorship of the booing of President Zuma".

In November 2012, the SABC admitted to blacklisting commentators and agreed that this was not in line with its code of conduct and that it contravened its licensing conditions in respect of news and current affairs. The SABC claimed to have adopted guidelines on the use of commentators, experts and analysts.

Current affairs shows Special Assignment and Interface on SABC3 swopping days and timeslots from October.

The days and timeslots of Special Assignment and Interface, the two current affairs programmes on SABC3 are swopping from October, with Interface moving from Sundays to Tuesdays, and Special Assignment moving from Thursdays to Sundays.

The studio interview show Interface will be moving from its later current Sunday night slot at 21:30 to earlier on Tuesdays at 20:00 from 1 October.

The longrunning Special Assignment currently on Thursdays at 21:30 is getting shunted to Sundays, still at 21:30, from 6 October.

Sources tell me both shows will continue with new episodes, although in new timeslots.

Eusebius McKaiser's shock Interface resignation: 'To leave the SABC can be good for one's CV. It means you are guilty of journalism'.

In his shocking resignation as the presenter of SABC3's political and current affairs show Interface at Sunday nights at 21:30, Eusebius McKaiser - citing that he was only paid R4 000 per month (R1 000 per week) - says ''I had no choice but to resign'' and says ''having to leave the SABC can be good for one's CV. It means you are guilty of  journalism'.

In an email from Eusebius McKaiser explaining why he quit, he says that R4 000 for 4 shows a month - for which he was the presenter as well as content producer - was to ''undervalue my professional skill set, and my dignity''. The South African media thought leader however also alludes to ''murkier truths'' besides just the low pay that led to his decision to dump the show, writing that ''self-censorship on the part of a sufficient number of SABC employees suffice to keep our politicians happy.''

The Interface presenter who's shocking resignation is sending shockwaves through the TV industry and which is once again going to raise questions regarding the SABC's editorial independence and possible political pressure, writes that ''my resignation made life easier. For everyone''. Eusebius McKaiser writes however that he will continue in broadcasting and continue to hold politicians to account ''but in the media outlets that do not shirk their social duty to be independent, analytic and fearless''.

Eusebius McKaiser who writes that the model for Interface was actually the BBC's Hard Talk interview programme, says he's ''disappointed'' that there was no phone call from his boss, Jimi Matthews - who's the head of the SABC's TV news and current affairs division - ''for days until I called him'' and cites various issues in his letter to give more perspective on why he decided to leave the SABC current affairs production in which he grilled local politicians.

Claiming that ''he [Jimi Matthews] did not do enough to help me stay on in the face of silent and not-so-silent pressures on him,'' Eusebius McKaiser writes that ''the bigger implication is that the vision Jimi Matthews has for the SABC's news and current affairs division will, in the end, be pointless, if he is unable/unwilling to resist his peers/bosses who are averse to, well, gutsy journalism. And that, clearly, is now happening.''

The SABC didn't respond immediately to a request for comment I made to the public broadcaster on Sunday night.

UPDATE Monday 18 July 15:15 - The SABC just responded:
''The SABC will not discuss individual's contracts, previous or current with the media,'' the SABC says in answer to my question on whether Eusebius McKaiser was paid R4 000 a month to do Interface.

''The SABC and Mr McKaiser parted ways amicably, when an agreement could  not be reached on a new contract,'' says the SABC in answer to my question on whether the SABC has any comment or statement, specially in relation to what Eusebius McKaiser says about Jimi Matthews and to what Eusebius McKaiser has said.