Paramount Africa refuses to explain anything as BET Africa's cash-crashed Queendom from Clive Morris Productions restarts filming after shutdown and payment failure scandal.

by Thinus Ferreira

Paramount Africa's cash-crashed telenovela Queendom on BET Africa which was forced to shutter at the end of May has lurched back into filming while Paramount executives and producers refuse to come clean about the behind-the-scenes upheaval that left the telenovela's cast and crew unpaid for months.

Paramount Africa was forced to switch to repeats of Queendom from 22 July, just four months after its debut on BET Africa (DStv 129)  after Clive Morris Productions ran out of money to film and even to pay cast and crew.

New episodes of Queendom will now start on 23 September with no explanation from Paramount Africa or Clive Morris Productions where the money came from to restart the embattled production that saw cast and crew forced to sell possessions to buy food while a crew member couldn't pay for a parent's funeral after a funeral policy lapsed due to non-payment.

Paramount Africa and BET Africa boss Monde Twala are remaining silent on the unpaid crew and cast production scandal of Clive Morris Productions' Queendom.

Monde Twala, Paramount Africa senior vice president and general manager and BET International lead, didn't respond to an interview request made a week ago through Paramount's South African PR firm Total Exposure. 

A media query with questions to Paramount Africa, also made last Wednesday through Total Exposure has also been ignored.

Clarity was sought from Paramount Africa on when filming for Queendom restarted and until when filming will continue, where the bridge financing now came from, who sourced the financing, how many more episodes will be produced, as well as how many of the former and original cast and crew have been able to return and who are no longer available.

Natalie Mdladla, Paramount senior director of communications, likewise ignored a media query in August seeking answers on why Paramount Africa allowed filming to start on a production before the money to make a show for BET Africa was 100% secured. 

She was also asked who at Paramount authorised pre-production and principal photography to start, and why Paramount again worked with CMP after the same cash issue caused a shutdown of ISONO.

According to Paramount Africa "Queendom makes a regal return on 23 September at 18:30 with a royal showdown as Prince Andile finally confronts his brother King Banzi about the throne". 

The show that has been airing reruns in the timeslot will resume with four new episodes weekly from 23 September from Mondays to Thursdays.

Linda Mtoba in the role of Ntando is one of the cast returning to the show, noting in a press statement that she is "thrilled that Queendom is returning to screens this September, taking the drama and intrigue to a whole new level, and I can't wait for fans to see how these powerful storylines unfold."

Other crew and actors have quit and left like Sindi Dlathu and Themba Ndaba who signed up for e.tv's Isipetho produced by Black Brain Pictures, while Queendom cast and crew have still not been paid in full the overdue money they're owed. 

In the statement, Monde Twala, who was seen hosting a cocktail party for producers last week at the MIP Africa 2024 TV market in Cape Town, only notes that "Local content is an important pillar for our audiences and we are committed to meeting this demand with impactful storytelling that resonates on a global scale".

Cascade failure explained

After the Queendom implosion, MultiChoice has also taken away Empini – done for its Showmax video streaming service by Clive Morris Productions – where crew members also went unpaid and reassigned it to Crystal Pics and Nomusa Mzima to complete the 52-episode series.

Queendom started out as a co-production, with BET responsible for half of the investment, which was fulfilled by BET Africa and Clive Morris Productions responsible for the other 50%.

According to CMP, a backer pulled out that would have paid its 50% towards the production costs, but it's unclear why pre-production and filming started before the funding was fully paid over.

Insiders told TVwithThinus that the trifecta of MultiChoice, Paramount Africa and Clive Morris Productions (CMP) should all share the blame for what happened to Queendom and the dire and shocking financial situation it plunged the show's committed cast and crew into.

According to them, the Queendom cascade implosion happened like this: MultiChoice placed tremendous pressure on Paramount Africa to maintain a contractual local content quota for BET Africa whereby Paramount must produce and air a number of local hours per year on the channel.

Paramount Africa, under pressure to adhere to its local content contract with MultiChoice or face stiff penalities, went ahead to strip local hours of Queendom which it allowed CMP to start producing, even though CMP didn't have all the money for the production in the bank.

Clive Morris Productions, which wanted to retain a stake in the ownership of Queendom, started filming the series despite not having its share of co-funding in the bank account, after which a funder suddenly decided to no longer invest in the show.

This derailed and collapsed production of Queendom when Clive Morris Productions, after filming had already started, failed to get the money required when the investor no longer wanted to pay.

In mid-April – by which time Paramount Africa was well aware that CMP had funding issues, that Queendom was struggling and that the cast and crew were not getting the paid – Paramount Africa and BET went ahead to launch Queendom with a splashy media event at Kings Kraal in Bryanston, Johannesburg for some media. 

Behind-the-scenes however, the Queendom cast and crew who were putting up a brave face, were already angry and distraught over the impossible production conditions, delayed payments, as well as Clive Morris Productions' ongoing promises that they would get paid.

"Typically shows like telenovelas and soaps are commissioned by TV channels and financed 100% by the channel. Queendom wasn't," a producer on the show explained.

"Clive Morris Productions entered into a deal where an onus was on them to raise a significant portion of the production costs, which are far too onerous for most producers. Very few production companies, if any, would be able to raise that capital for a show of this size like Queendom."

"I had never heard of such an arrangement in the context of a telenovela. They exist for films or a very short miniseries. Prior to any minute of any footage being filmed all the money should have been in the bank. That wasn't the case, hence we find ourselves in the position we're in."

ALSO READ: Paramount Africa's Queendom on BET shut down with cast and crew unpaid by Clive Morris Productions as MultiChoice's Showmax also gives Empini to another producer.

ALSO READ: Paramount Africa silent over unpaid Queendom crew and cast and why BET signed off for filming to start on Clive Morris Production show that didn't have production money fully in the bank.

1Magic: M-Net confirms the Tshedza Pictures produced The River won't run through it after 6 seasons.

Thinus Ferreira

M-Net confirmed industry whispers that the Tshedza Pictures produced telenovela The River for its 1 Magic (DStv 103) channel will be ending with the upcoming 6th and final season that will start on 6 February.

The River starring Sindi Dlathu and Hlomla Dandala and that introduced various new on-screen talent to viewers over the past half a decade, launched in February 2018 as a prime-time drama vehicle to anchor M-Net's 1Magic channel.

1Magic made its debut on DStv at the same time as The River which was positioned as the channel's flagship show, with the channel which was created as a premium version of the existing Mzansi Magic channel for higher-tiered DStv subscribers. 

The loss of The River set in the fictitious Refilwe, leaves 1Magic without an announced replacement, which means that M-Net is set to announce a new telenovela for the channel later this year to revitalise the channel's programming line-up after the end of The River.

Created by Phathu Makwarela and Gwydion Beynon, re-versioned for adaptations in Nigeria and Angola and winning 26 Golden Horn statuettes at the South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas), show star Sindi Dlathu also transitioned to become series co-executive producer.

Tshedza Pictures is now producing Gqeberha: The Empire which recently started on Mzansi Magic as the first telenovela being filmed in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

M-Net in a statement confirms that "1Magic's The River is coming to an end with its upcoming sixth season".

"At M-Net local entertainment channels we would like to extend our most sincere gratitude to the cast and crew of The River for a memorable five years," says Shirley Adonisi, M-Net director for local entertainment channels.

"Their hard work, dedication and brilliance have led to the telenovela's success. The final season is going to be the show's most epic one yet. The drama will be bigger and better, setting the stage for the ultimate finale".

Showrunner Phathu Makwarela says "When we created The River seven years ago, we knew that we wanted to tell a story that will have a definite ending".

"Now on its sixth season, we feel the time is right to bring the story of these beloved characters to an end, on our own terms and when viewers still treasure the show. As the saying goes, 'a good dancer always knows when to leave the stage', and now it's that time for The River."

No, M-Net is not moving its telenovela, The River from 1Magic to Mzansi Magic or making episodes available on that DStv channel.

M-Net is not moving its new local telenovela The River on the 1Magic (DStv 103) channel to Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and the pay-TV broadcaster has no plans at the moment to make episodes of the series available to lower-tiered DStv subscribers.

M-Net says The River - produced by Tshedza Pictures where it's written and executive produced by Phathutshedzo Makwarela and Gwydion Beynon with Connie and Shona Ferguson as supervising producers - will remain exclusively on 1Magic as a viewing offering for a DStv Premium audience.

"It was definitely a joke. The River is not moving to Mzansi Magic, Nondumiso Mabece, head of publicity at M-Net local entertainment channels, tells TVwithThinus.

It comes after the writer and producer Portia Gumede on social media told people on Monday - that happened to be 1 April - "Great news. The River on 1Magic is being moved to Mzansi Magic. Now we can all watch it". It turns out that it was an April Fool's Day joke.

The River on 1Magic is only available to DStv Premium subscribers since it started on 29 January this year, while Mzansi Magic is available to more pay-TV viewers including Premium but also DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact subscribers.

While the ratings of The River of just a few thousand viewers per episode over the past two months has been so-so, it's to be expected and not out of line with some other Premium only DStv channels like M-Net (DStv 101), since the premium audience targeted telenovela is only available to the smallest potential pay-TV audience.

That upmarket audience lured to tune in to the weekday drama starring Sindi Dlathu and Hlomla Dandala - although small - are however highly courted and the most sought after by advertisers, justifying higher per thousand viewer ad spot rates for the 1Magic channel.

REVIEW. The River on 1Magic is a meshed jumble of Jacob's Cross 2.0 and Isidingo 2.0 with a black 'Cherel de Villiers Haines', and scenic aerial drone shots.

The new telenovela The River for M-Net's rebranded 1Magic (DStv 103) channel that started on Monday for DStv Premium subscribers is a patchwork of stories and styles you've likely seen or had a passing interest in before - a somewhat overwrought mesh, borrowing from where parts of some other TV soaps have gone before.

Way overacting, Sindi Dlathu, hyping up the histrionics in interior shots but completely flat in exterior shots filmed on location, is channeling a black Cherel de Villiers Haines mining boss character (who also killed - and hid a body in a mine shaft in Isidingo - and who also grew up poor and abused but rose to rule thanks to ruthless ambition).

Once again South African viewers are fed the stale TV trope that a successful business woman surely must be evil and surely couldn't have attained what she did on her own by simply being good and good-natured.

It's interesting that Hlomla Dandala formerly from Jacob's Cross on M-Net and Africa Magic, and Don Mlangeni Nawa formerly from Isidingo on SABC3, both show up in roles.

The River, produced by Tshedza Pictures, comes across as a mash-up of Jacob's Cross 2.0 and Isidingo 2.0 so the presence of both of these actors serve intentionally or unintentionally as visual reminders and touchstones of the soapy dramas and roles they've been seen in before.

Nothing in The River except for visual scene setting aerial drone shots (that are done well) feels new.

Yet again a mining drama. Yet again rich people who are bad. Yet again a rich family unaware of the evil actions of the boss parent and spouse. Yet again poor people part of a mining community who are naive and being exploited.

Keep in mind that The River (the opening title sequence looks like M-Net's Egoli 2.0) is made for DStv Premium subscribers - an audience that already has access to the avalanche of multiple weekday soaps and telenovelas across the SABC's channels, as well as e.tv's new generation of stylised local prime time telenovelas.

The question then becomes why this upscale audience would watch yet another poor vs rich, mining community framed drama (complete with some traces of Skeem Saam angst).

The River - and this review is based on having viewed the first broadcast episode only, and yes, stories often take longer than the establishing episode to set up plot points - doesn't seem to have any themes that haven't been explored in other local soaps before.

In the first 24 minutes a woman is buried alive, another woman shoots and (presumably) kills herself, and a man is hit with a brick on his head from behind and drowned.

 It's too much violence for an opening episode and literally hitting the viewer over the head with trying to show how "faux brutal" it can be. What (shock value) will be left for later?

The episode's set piece - the cold open of a massive mining front-end loader advancing on a woman and burying her under a load of dirt - is effective, but it also looks quite fake due to how it was filmed.

The suicide that follows a few minutes later comes across as emotionally hollow since the viewer feels nothing for the character - and can't: there's been no time to get to know the character and have an emotional response because you don't (yet) care.

Lunga Shabalala's acting stuck out as really bad. Maybe it's just the Lindani role and he might not be a bad actor per se, but he should possibly just stick to plain TV presenting roles.

In terms of screen time the first episode of The River is very Sindi Dlathu heavy, and yes, it is a soap, but the portrayal of Lindiwe as a Cherel-on-steroids type character is way too overly dramatic - from tears to chasing men out of a boardroom and a far too over the top "lets make sure this person is really dead" scene on a river's edge.

Too may fake things kept taking me out of the story, from a dad's wholly unrealistic conversation with his son, someone clearly sipping from an empty cup, a non-diamond looking rough diamond with the appearance of a Star Trek crystal, and a mine workers revolt filmed in close-up scenes to unsuccessfully try and hide that there are only 15 extras supposed to represent a whole mining company.

After a Miriam-hiding-Moses type flashback and other unfulfilled agreements it felt as if the generically entitled The River as a telenovela would have been better as Broken Hearts or Broken Promises maybe? Who knows.

With an glut and oversupply of similar shows for South African viewers, The River feels too generic. There's really nothing that makes it stand out as must-see, novel and compelling viewing - yet another new washing powder brand in a long aisle of TV laundry detergents promising more, but basically delivering the same as the existing ones, with the same ingredients.

It's good that it exists - at the very least it's work and experience for the local TV industry. But groundbreaking, refreshing and genre expanding The River is not.


■ M-Net didn't make The River on 1Magic available beforehand for review purposes and this review is based on watching the first episode only, and as a linear broadcast episode on Monday night.


editor's note: This review was updated on Wednesday 31 January 2018 by correcting a spelling mistake and changing the spelling of Sindi Dlathu's name to the correct "Sindi" from "Sindy".

LET THE RIVER RUN. Sindi Dlathu to shock as devil diva in 1Magic's new diamond drama.

The new diamond drama, The River, will start as a new locally-produced telenovela on the new 1Magic channel on Monday 29 January 2018 with M-Net that's managed to lure well-known TV talent like Sindi Dlathu, Hlomla Dandala, Don Mlangeni and Motshidi Motshegwa to put a face to the new channel.

Like SABC3's Isidingo produced by Endemol Shine South Africa, The River, produced by Tshedza Pictures, chose a South African mining community as the fictional setting where a clash between downtrodden yet aspiring blue collar workers and high-society wealth-wielders will play out when the telenovela starts on weekdays at 20:00.

Similar to the first local drama forays of Mzansi Magic, The River will combine the conflict inherent in township struggles where ordinary working class South Africans have bigger dreams, but are in part prevented from realising those aspirations due to capitalist greed and pervasive corruption within the upper classes.

The River will be the flagship show on the soon-to-launch 1Magic (DStv 103) that is replacing the VUZU AMP channel after three years that tried to court a younger viewership.

The creation of 1Magic is signaling M-Net's latest shift to a bigger focus on broader, general local entertainment through telenovelas and dramas to try and lure a wider audience than just youth viewers, something that the VUZU and VUZU AMP channels have struggled with.

"The River is just the type of drama that fans have been waiting for," says Reneilwe Sema, the M-Net director of local entertainment.

"The storyline combines the allure and ruthlessness of the business world, with the raw essence of township struggles, making for the type of story lines our viewers love."

Sindi Dlathu who left SABC2's Venda-soap Muvhango for this new top billing role, will now appear as Lindiwe, the ruthless matriarch of a mining family.

It will be a stunning role-reversal character portrayal for Sindi Dlathu, beloved by millions of South African viewers for her Thandaza Mokoena character in Muvhango, with viewers who are going to be shocked and bowled over by her cunning, vicious and "love to hate her" new evil on-screen persona.

When the stiletto'ed Lindiwe, living in an upper-crust mansion one the one side of a river, discovers that a township community on the other side is unaware that they're sitting on a valuable diamond treasure, she is adamant to secure the land and riches and will let nothing stand in her way.

Desperate to unearth the diamonds, she is as quick to put bodies into the ground when people stand in her way.

Hlomla Dandala who was in Isidingo and headlined M-Net's very first "Africa drama" Jacob's Cross a decade ago in 2007, returns to M-Net as Zweli, the husband of Lindiwe.

Newcomer Larona Moagi plays Itumeleng, a young character from the township, described as a "feisty rebel who refused to be silenced and roll over when her family and community become casualties of greed and excess" and who wants to put an end to Lindiwe's "ruthless gluttony" at the expense of the local mining community.

The veretan actor Don Mlangeni plays Thato, Itumeleng's dad, with veteran actress Moshidi Motshegwa appearing as her mom, Malefu, a "pillar of strength in the family and township community".

Lawrence Maleka will appear in the role of Zolani, the adopted son of Lindiwe who "bites into forbidden fruit" and is the eyewitness to a terrible tragedy.

Sindi Dlathu leaving Muvhango; filming her final scenes at the end of October; Thandaza character won't be killed off and will exit in March 2018 on SABC2.

Sindi Dlathu is exiting SABC2's Venda weekday soap Muvhango and will be filming her last scenes at the end of this month, October, with the character of Thandaza whose on-screen exit will be seen on SABC2 during March 2018.

Sindi Dlathu is leaving Muvhango after 2 decades since she decided to "take a break from the production".

According to Morishe Matlejoane, associate producer at Muvhango, the Venda soap is not recasting the character and is also not killing off Thandaza - which leaves the door open for a return of Thandaza in the future.

"Muvhango has been more than a job to me, it has been my life for 20 years and I’ve loved and cherished every single moment of playing Thandaza," says Sindi Dlathu in a statement about her exit from the show.

"After 20 years I've decided to give the Thandaza character a break in order for me to grow as an artist, venture out to explore new opportunities and discover what I can do as an actress and as a human being."

Duma ka Ndlovu, Muvhango creator and executive producer says he has "cherished every single moment Sindi has been part of the shows I have done and she remains one of the most talented people I have ever worked with."

Jacqui Hlongwane, acting general manager for SABC TV channels says "Sindi has without a doubt been one of the major contributors to Muvhango's success over the years and how South African audiences have received, loved and supported her is testament to that."

SABC2's Muvhango cast not striking; 'working relationship with the SABC has never been better,' says public broadcaster's Venda soap.

SABC2's Venda soap Muvhango, Word of Mouth Productions, the cast and the SABC are jointly rubbishing tabloid trash reports that the Muvhango cast was striking.

While reputable media didn't touch the fake story, tabloids foamed at the mouth to "report" the fabrication.

It prompted the SABC, the production company and the actors to unite against the slanderous accusations.

"We were surprised as the Muvhango cast around the media reports that there was a strike looming. I can confidently state there is no strike; it is business as usual," says Sindi Dlathu, the Muvhango cast representative who portrays the role of Thandaza.

Earlier this year SABC2 finally added a Friday Muvhango episode on weekdays at 21:00, with the 15 year old soap now running five days a week, a year after the SABC made the announcement that Muvhango will add another episode per week.

The production, the actors and the SABC is making it clear that at no point was there a strike or one intended at Muvhango. "There is a good relationship," says producers Duma Ndlovu and Mmamitse Thibedi.

"This year has been amazing for Muvhango as a brand," says Duma Ndlovu. "The team, being the cast and producers, are focused on working on bigger and better stories. We appreciate the SABC for increasing the broadcasting of the programme from 4 days to 5 and our working relationship with the SABC has never been better".

The SABC's famously matricless acting chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng who met with the Muvhango cast, says the soap "is one of the SABC's biggest properties".

"We are dedicated to improving the lives of workers and as the SABC we have given production houses three year contracts and we are encouraging these production houses to provide their full-time actors with 3 year contracts," says Hlaudi Motsoeneng.