TV REVIEW. In their Zuma Arrest Watch coverage SABC News won the night as eNCA devolved into opinion-tainment and Newzroom Afrika faded; eNCA reporter Siphamandla Goge the most valuable player.

by Thinus Ferreira

In Wednesday night's three-horse race of South African TV news channels and their respective rolling coverage of the impending arrest of Jacob Zuma, SABC News (DStv 404) ended as the overall winner, followed by an opinion-slanted eNCA (DStv 403) that also did bad "reporting" based on unconfirmed sources, while Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405) seemed to run out of stream after a few hours.

eNCA reporter Siphamandla Goge was Wednesday night's most valuable player during Zuma Arrest Watch as the country tuned in to watch the impending arrest and jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.

At 21:00 on Wednesday night as the various South African TV news channels had reporters stationed outside Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal and at Westville prison, Newzroom Afrika was actually in the lead with the best coverage and live crossings, followed by SABC News and with eNCA in third place that was running a TV talk show. 

Over the course of the following three hours, both SABC News (DStv 404) and eNCA each improved their coverage.

SABC News improved from second position to first, eNCA (DStv 403) improved from third position to second, and Newzroom Africa (DStv 405) that seemed to get a bit lost in terms of editorial direction, fell from first to third place in its coverage.

The first big question on Wednesday night was which of the three TV news channels might stay with original and live rolling coverage and whether eNCA, SABC News and Newzroom Afrika might switch to repeats and rebroadcasts from around 22:00 and 23:00 on Wednesday night.

Luckily, all have seemingly learnt the lesson from previous late-night no-shows when it came to Jacob Zuma news, fires and other big South African news events that they had previously ignored and they all stayed with live anchoring and on-location reporting on Wednesday until past midnight.

SABC News reporters really stood out in their night-time, on-location, bright yellow and very professional looking reporter jackets.

SABC News also did the most live crossings, to the most reporters, with the widest range of commentators.

SABC News anchor Peter Ndoro was calm and collected and borderline "boring" and semi-detached throughout - an excellent anchor for the unfolding hurry-up-and-wait situation as he brought a sober, very matter-of-fact, fact-based approach to the SABC's conveying of the news.

The SABC News coverage style was objective, and Peter Ndoro and SABC News reporters were actually very careful in their language use - carefully denoting when they didn't know, noting precisely what little at times they did know, and with very little personal speculation and opinion.

eNCA was initially behind in Wednesday's "main match pre-show build-up", running a JJ Tabane studio-based talk show from Hyde Park while SABC News and Newzroom Afrika were giving on-the-ground reports at the same time.

From 21:30 onwards, eNCA improved with Shahan Ramkissoon in the NewsNight anchor chair, but the channel also damaged credibility and coverage with opinion-based injections and some bad "journalism" that detracted from eNCA delivering a fact-based, history-making night TV special that could proudly live in the video vault.

Shahan Ramkissoon seemed giddy at times and over-emoted a tad too much, conveying to viewers how incredible the night's constantly unfolding events were. It's fine to be excited but do you really want to be on a plane where you know that the pilot is actually hand-claspingly excited as well?

eNCA did damagingly bad "reporting", telling viewers in unsubstantiated claims that South Africa's Constitutional Court was considering a letter from Jacob Zuma, with eNCA citing "sources" and saying "we're hearing" and it's "unconfirmed". Why on Earth was eNCA then even verbalising this unconfirmed rumour-mongering on-air?

eNCA reporter Siphamandla Goge shined as the night's best reporter. He asked the most questions, led the pack of TV reporters camping out at Nkandla and excelled in drawing out new information from interviews and translating to viewers what protestors were doing and saying, as well as alertingeNCA when a Jacob Zuma convoy suddenly swerved out the gate and left for jail.

While it was a schadenfreude-filled, fun and frivolous watch, Shahan Ramkissoon who stayed live on eNCA after midnight - pitting JJ Tabane and the ever-caustic Mzwanele Manyi against each other in a to-and-fro shouting match - eNCA's Real House husbands of Mzansi trash-talking edition was ultimately empty news calorie newstainment.

Similar to Silindelo Masikane's tabloid-trash interview with Norma Mngoma on eNCA in December 2020, the on-air boxing match between JJ Tabane and Mzwanele Manyi didn't yield any actual news beyond more bloviating opinion and he-said, he-said rhetoric and did a disservice to eNCA.

While the copying of the low-brow opinion-based, infotainment style of commercial American TV news channels like FOX News and MSNBC do bring viewers short-term, it also damages the credibility of a channel like eNCA when it comes to fact-based news reporting over the longer run.

It was fun to watch Shahan Ramkissoon telling Mzwanele Manyi with a tinge of sarcasm to "also learn" from international spokespeople and to keep his answers short, but behaviour like this signals to guests and viewers that eNCA is unable to keep things professional and not personal.

The TV news channel very well knows who Mzwanele Manyi is and how he behaves - yet deliberately chose to invite him on and give him a massive amount of air-time on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. 

At the end, Mzwanele Manyi remains a guest - an invited guest - and should be treated with respect even if he decides to be rude and arrogant.

On Newzroom Afrika, Thabo Mdluli anchored Wednesday night's coverage. Nothing was really wrong or bad but there wasn't anything unique about its news offering.

Although Newzroom Afrika didn't veer into the editorialising and opinion-infused infotainment of eNCA, it also didn't have the breadth of SABC News' reporting.

Newzroom Afrika seemed to run out of stream and got pipped to the post by SABC News and eNCA. A few times reporters looked a little bit frazzled and dazed. Perhaps SABC News and eNCA were as well but maybe hid it a bit better.

Luckily, Nkandla seemingly only had one entrance/exit and reporters and camera crew were waiting at the right place. Channels also dispatched reporters to prisons like Westville and eNCA arrived just in time at Estcourt Correction Centre.

A lot could have gone wrong in Wednesday night's coverage but luckily didn't. 

The three TV news channels could have captured more and could possibly have planned better with more and better quality commentators and analysts pre-booked and on-hand for the late hours but it's commendable that pay-TV viewers at least got what SABC News, eNCA and Newzroom Afrika provided.

Kudos that SABC News, eNCA and Newzroom Afrika remained live on Wednesday night. 

Bar eNCA's atrocious ConCourt rumours that isn't journalism, the three channels and their collective Zuma Arrest Watch coverage could have been better but for late-night coverage - that local channels are not really used to doing - was good enough.

eNCA and eNuus meteorologists are gone with the wind as eMedia switches to weatherboard graphics without presenters and weather personalities exit with heavy hearts: 'Where the sun sets a more beautiful sunrise awaits'.

by Thinus Ferreira

Weather presenters on eNCA (DStv 403) are gone with the wind, with the eMedia Investments TV news channel that has abruptly axed and done away with its entire remaining weather presenting team including Joel Guy and Annette Botha and with eNCA that will now just be using low-level sliding "weatherboard" graphics for forecasting.

The disappearance of eNCA's weather presenters on-screen in English also impacts the daily Afrikaans TV news bulletin eNuus on kykNET (DStv 144) that is supplied to kykNET by eNCA.

eNCA and eNuus viewers were shocked on Thursday when two of the longtime meteorologists, Joel "Guy" Chabata and Annette Botha, suddenly announced that they're out of jobs and that viewers will no longer see them on-screen bring the weather.

The respected, veteran eNCA weatherman Joel "Guy" Chabata posted a photo on social media showing him leaving eMedia's Cape Town office after 12 years with his few desk belongings packed in a carton box.

The former physics teacher brought viewers the weather on e.tv and eNCA since 2009. "So this is it. End of the road with eNCA," Joel said. "It was good having your support South Africa while giving you the weather on your tellies for the past decade. Looking forward to new chapters and adventures."

So this is it. End of the road with #eNCA.

It was good having your support #SouthAfrica while giving you the weather on your tellies for the past decade.

Looking forward to new chapters and adventures.

ADIOS!@TVwithThinus pic.twitter.com/E0LZkjnSZw

— Weather Master #sangomasezulu (@JoelGuy_) April 15, 2021

eNuus anchors on air called the announcement "unexpected" after a very sad looking Annette Botha, known for her Afrikaans "onweer of mooiweer" sign-off, told viewers on-screen during Thursday night's TV news bulletin that she is gone after almost 7 years as a meteorologist.

Annette Botha stunned kykNET viewers when she said that it's her final weather forecast after almost 7 years and that she's taking DStv subscribers through some of her most favourite weather images that viewers have sent in over the years.

At the end of her last forecast, a clearly distraught Annette who managed to maintain her composure said in Afrikaans that "Tonight I greet you with a heavy heart. But where the sun sets, a more beautiful sunrise awaits. May it rain where your goats are grazing, and onweer of mooiweer, the Lord remains in control". 

eNCA kept the retrenchment of its weather presenting division quiet with neither Norman Munzhelele, eNCA managing director, or John Bailey, eNCA managing editor, who issued a statement or comment and with eNCA that didn't respond to a media enquiry on Thursday afternoon.

According to insiders, eNCA is toning down its TV standard of personalised weather presentations with viewers who will no longer get their weather forecast from an actual on-screen person from now on.

eNCA made the decision to now only use so-called "weatherboard" graphics going forward, filled by forecast data from the South African Weather Service and removing the human element and interaction with viewers.

According to sources the remaining meteorologists were let go Tuesday and told that it's an operational decision, with Thursday that was their final day.

eNCA already retrenched its weather department at the end of November 2019 using the same operational motivation, dismantling the well-respected division that brought DStv subscribers additional inserts and weather-related context to forecasts was built up by Derek van Dam as the channel's chief meteorologist over several years. 

eNCA however kept a few meteorologists on who have now also had their contracts terminated.

Worldwide, weather presenters on TV and as part of a bulletin continue to serve as an indicator of the stature of a channel or a TV news division's operations.

Viewers like to get their forecast about tomorrow's weather from a person on television, as opposed to the internet and smartphone apps where screen-scrolling for weather details suffice within the frame of a reduced and less interpersonal information-sharing experience.

Besides wind and rain projections, as well as minimum and maximum temperatures, TV meteorologists as a specialised skill, colour their presentations with explanations to viewers of various weather phenomena to help educate and inform them about everything from things like an extratropical cyclone to a polar vortex.

In South Africa as elsewhere in the world, weather presenters - who despite their brief on-air appearances at the end of TV news bulletins are in some cases held in even higher regard than news anchors - are beloved by viewers.

Viewers know their names and tune in especially because they like to hear from a friendly and trusted face about what "tomorrow's weather" might hold.

It remains to be seen whether eNCA's removal of weather presenters might shift some viewers to rivals news channels like SABC News (DStv 404), Newzroom Africa (DStv 405) and other TV news bulletins.

UPDATE Friday 16 April 2021 19:35: The eNCA and eNuus meteorologist Anika de Beer on Friday enveing also said got her chance to say goodbye to viewers, noting that it's "unfortunately my turn to say goodbye" after "I had the chance the past 5 years to life out my passion for the weather".

"Thank you that I could share it with you, and thank you that you opened your living rooms, homes and hearts to me and the rest of our team. It wasn't just my privilege but also my pleasure and that's why I'm so thankful that tonight I can talk to you for the last time about the weather," she said.

"It's with a heavy heart that I'm saying goodbye to you tonight but I'm thankful for the time I was able to be here and I'm excited about what the future holds," Anika de Beer said.

"If there's one thing that the weather has taught me, it's that sometimes storms are unpredictable but then faith and grace showed me that every storm passes. And with that I say, for the last time, 'dit is vir eers die weer en dalk eendag, is daar 'n volgende keer".