ANN7 dumps Juliet Newell from prime time and ANN Prime, keeps delaying new schedule roll-out and relaunch of morning show Vuka Africa.

Juliet Newell has been dumped from prime time and moved to an afternoon timeslot less than a month after ANN7 (DStv 405) confirmed that Juliet Newell is the new prime time anchor taking over its flagship show ANN7 Prime after Chantal Rutter Dros left.

ANN7 confirmed in January that Juliet Newell is their new prime time anchor, saying she "is the new prime anchor for ANN7 Prime, weekly from 19:00 to 20:00".

Less than a month later she disappeared to ANN7's afternoon line-up, with the inexperienced TV news reader Nzinga Qunta, who is not a journalist, now anchoring prime time.

ANN7's Infinity Media has not responded with answers to multiple media enquiries made since mid-February about Juliet Newell's appearance and her abrupt and quick exit from its prime time slot and why it happened - nor about the young Nzinga Qunta who took over.

Nzinga Qunta has been with ANN7 since the TV news channel launched.

Meanwhile ANN7's relaunch of its morning breakfast show anchored by Peter van Onselen, Vuka Afrika between 06:00 and 09:00 on weekdays, has been pushed back yet again, already missing two previous deadlines for the revamped show to start.

ANN7 morning anchor Abigail Visagie was supposed to join Peter van Onselen from the beginning of March as part of a "new" Vuka Africa, but that deadline has now also come and gone.

Since launch ANN7 has battled to overcome issues of credibility and professionalism with ongoing on-air gaffes and a lack of transparency.

Meanwhile ANN7 which in 2014 saw a dramatic loss of executives and on-air talent as several TV reporters and anchors - unhappy with the TV channel - decided to leave, is yet again advertising for TV reporters.

ANN7 is looking for news reporters, political reporters, provincial reporters, as well as entertainment and features reporters with at least two years' experience in the industry to beef up the channel's news reporting.

Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon quietly gone from ANN7's morning show, Vuka Africa; breakfast show dumped for straight news broadcast timeslot.

Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon had quietly quit ANN7 (DStv 405) and the Infinity Media produced 24-hour TV news channel's morning show Vuka Africa she hosted, barely months after ANN7 launched her as the new face of its morning television slot.

After hiring Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon and hyping her as one of its high profile gets, with Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon trumpeting her return to South African television, and ANN7 positioning Vuka Africa as its big new morning show, Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon suddenly found herself right in the centre and the face of the inept, cringe-worthy and highly embarrassing ANN7 launch event in August 2013, fronting the shockingly amateur spectacle.

Now Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon, a former M-Net continuity presenter, quietly slipped away under the radar following her high-profile hire, with no replacement hire by ANN7 for the timeslot. Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon already dumped ANN7 in February this year, after only six months.

Vuka Africa, like other ANN7 shows and timeslots, was beset with problems and littered with live mistakes on television in the timeslot over which Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon presided.

With Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon gone, ANN7 dumped the entire morning breakfast show show idea centred around her seated on a red couch as well.

ANN7 kept the name of Vuka Africa, but changing the logo and has dumped the softer breakfast show format, reverting it to a normal newscast with an anchor reading the news from behind the news desk and some short newsmaker interviews.

Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon left ANN7 "to do other things", says ANN7 spokesperson Gary Naidoo.

"Gerry had a contract with ANN7 which ran until February 21. Gerry indicated to the management team that she will not be renewing the contract for the morning show. Gerry has confirmed that she is open to discussing a continued relationship with the channel".

ANN7's Vuka Africa timeslot continues to serve up highly embarrassing and cringe-worthy mistakes.

Earlier this week for instance telenality Tomy Titus was interviewed. She will soon be going to the United States of America on a study scholarship.

During the ANN7 interview in the Vuka Africa timeslot, the TV news channel embarrassingly (since a USA ambassador was present in studio which made it worse) kept displaying and rolling unrelated footage of NSA surveillance and B-roll from archive stories from "America is spying on the world" stories.

While Romy Titus talked about how wonderful it's going to be to go to America, ANN7 kept showing incongruous American cyber spying images on the background TV monitors and screens behind the newsdesk, as well as full screen.

Nobody stopped it or changed it - obviously pulling up the first "lets show America and Washington" footage for background they could find, without checking or noticing that it is inappropriate for a "South African going to Washington on scholarship" story.