20 years of television in South Africa by Disbook Magazine

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20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

THE CHANGING FACES OF THE PEOPLE’S TELEVISION — BY KITSO KGABOESELE

— From totalitarian apartheid-era propaganda tool to the voice of the people to a rivalry with private television, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has evolved more as an institution than any other in the country. Loathe it or love it, the SABC is not only a key state institution, it is also what is referred to as a National Key Point. It has been called many things; a puppet of the ruling party, a propaganda machine, the troubled faulty towers and the list goes on. What is perhaps true and serves as an accurate descriptor of the institution, is that it is a public broadcaster. Its mandate, more so in a democratic environment it now operates in, is broad. It has to inform, educate and entertain whilst upholding the democratic principles of the nation. Before 1994 South Africans watched television but a very different kind of television. What was reflected on their screens mirrored a reality that served the interests of the minority White population and alienated those of the Black majority. Television came to the country in the late seventies, in 1976, a relatively late start compared to the rest of the world. Initially skeptical and dismissive, the apartheid government viewed it as a tool that would propagate a way of being that both negated and

destabilized an entrenched Afrikaans hegemony. Their view was that through this medium, White Afrikaners would be exposed to external influences and would be susceptible to the falsehoods spread by advertising. On 6 January 1976, the country experienced its first nation-wide broadcast. At that time Afrikaans had near total control on what was broadcast both on radio and the press. As a result of mounting pressure from civil society both internally and abroad the apartheid state realized that it could no longer keep South Africans in the dark by denying them access to television. The situation reached breaking point when the country could not join the rest of the world in watching the live televised broadcast of Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon moment. When the country’s first democratically elected government came into power, it followed that one of the first institutions accountable to the state it sought to radically change was the SABC. Its primary focus was to have

a public broadcaster that would reflect a changing society; a society that mirrored the democratic project and processes underway. South Africans had access to the events leading to the elections notably the CODESA/Kempton Park negotiations. It also became important that the SABC’s coverage of the country’s first ever democratic elections be fair. The transition has inevitably had a bearing on the type of content broadcast by the SABC. In 1995, the Triple Enquiry Report made a number of recommendations, which later developed into the country’s first content regulations. The little black box would radically change what and how it communicated to South Africans in a post-apartheid environment. The following interviews will take you on a journey not just of the SABC in the last 20 years, from the dark days of apartheid to its transition into a free environment, but South Africa’s democratic experiment as a whole. We will reflect with some of the SABC’s key players on its milestones and challenges, such as the emergence of private television’s impact. Now that public broadcasting is by the people and for the people, what is the SABC doing to ensure the future vitality of local South African productions and its makers? How has it coped with relinquishing control in the face of the broad range of choices private television permits? We posed these questions and more to the people behind the scenes.

Kitso Kgaboesele is an independent writer and researcher. She previously worked as a researcher for the SABC News and Current Affairs division as well as the Ministry of Arts and Culture. As a features writer, her work has appeared in publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Femina and Top Billing.

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20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

Memory Lane By Kitso Kgabosele

Mmaserame Matlhola, pictured in front of her TV set in the house she currently works for as a house keeper in Johannesburg

When did you start watching television? My father bought our first TV set in 1976. It was a small black and white battery operated device. Not many of us had TVs; we charged our neighbors twenty cents to watch for the night. When we couldn’t fit enough people in our garage, we locked the gates. I can still see some of them peeping through the windows fascinated by the lights, it was magical. What kinds of programs did you watch? We watched shows for White people, Afrikaans programs. I was 16 and at the time and I remember Liewe Heksie. Die seun van soekmekaar and Trompie were other dramas we enjoyed; even though they were in Afrikaans, we understood what was going. In my view it was the war between the school kids in Soweto and the police that changed everything. You mean the 1976 Soweto Student Uprisings? Yes, we heard about what was happening on the radio, I don’t think that we had access to those visuals. So the country must have come under a lot of pressure from outside to open the airwaves to all of us. In fact it must have been late 1976 when we

Mmaserame Matlhola is a 54 year old proud TV license holder and a longtime viewer of the SABC. She takes me down memory lane tracing the journey she has travelled with the public broadcaster and marvels at some of its extraordinary achievements in the last 20 years.

watched television for the first time, after the war. When did you start seeing a change in programming? In the 80s we started seeing black people on TV. It was funny at first, almost unreal to see black people like ourselves there. I remember news legends such as Lesley Mashokwe, Izzy Matjila and Morna Phatudi, and that beauty queen Khanyi Dhlomo. TV was a bit strange then, at some point we only had access to it for several hours at a time. The programming used to end around midnight and all we had for the rest of the time, until the following morning at 6 am, was that clock, that famous SAUK clock. Then it was time for Body Beat (laughs), oh this country has really come a long way. We also started watching programs like Santa Barbara and Dallas, and I remember characters like CC Capwell, JR Ewing and Joan Collins. Some programs were dubbed and were strange to watch because the translation didn’t make much sense like In the Heat of the Night. What brought on the change? Well, the boers were losing power that was clear. It was Mandela this and Mandela that. I remember after we relocated from

Mabopane in Pretoria to Mmabatho we also had Bop TV. It was a different world. Later on there were lots of programs, we watched shows like Lesilo Rula, Mopheme and Bophelo ke Semphekgo, funny enough those shows were recently on TV, last year sometime. The 90s were so different, it’s like everything became more shiny and glamorous. Shows like Shaka Zulu began, followed by the likes of Generations which is still on even today. Itlhopele senotlolo (Pick a Box) was very popular, I have friends who won prizes from those competitions you know, irons, Kelvinators fridges and all sorts of things. Thinking back to then, what do you think about SABC television today? It has come a long way. These days we are more updated about what’s happening around us through the various News bulletins in many of our languages. The programming caters for all ages and different tastes. Isidingo and Muvhango are very entertaining; they present real life issues and use our own languages while doing that. There is a lot of helpful information now through shows like Speak Out, Know your Rights and Khumbule Khaya. I feel more empowered as a citizen.

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DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

Rules Of Engagement: Behind The SABC’s Policymakers Philly Moilwa is the General Manager at the SABC for Policy and Regulatory Affairs and Acting Head of the Strategy Division. He gave Disbook a snapshot of some of the public broadcaster’s major milestones and regulatory changes it’s put in place to ensure a democratic institution with a public-service mandate.

Disbook: Could you take us through the SABC’s local content offering pre-94? In fact what in your view are the significant periods in the history of the SABC? Philly Moilwa:You cannot talk about SABC television and the content that’s on our screens without pointing to some key milestones within broadcasting because they had an impact on the public broadcaster. Some important periods are just before 1994, 2002 when the content regulations were gazetted, and 2006 when the SABC’s license conditions were amended. Before 1994, broadcasting was regulated under the Broadcasting Act of 1976, by extension the SABC. Through this Act, government controlled the formulation of broadcasting policy and legislation. The state also had exclusive rights over broadcast services through the SABC. The broadcaster’s independence from government was therefore highly questionable. It was, in a way, decided internally at the SABC what South

Africans were going to see on their screens. In that context, local content was undermined especially for the PDI (Previously Disadvantaged Individuals) groups. The only content that was promoted was sectional, in terms of race, so you can say that racial polarization applied to content as well. Certain channels were meant for certain race groups. The SABC being state controlled meant that content, to a large extent, also had to do with the political whims of the day. D: What happened in 1995? P. M.: We couldn’t go to the elections with the SABC in that way because coverage of the elections had to be fair. The IBA came into being in 1994 and helped set up a framework for fair elections coverage. In 1995 it also began to work on one of its biggest mandate which was to look into the state of South African radio and television content and related rules and guidelines. The Triple Inquiry Report subsequently made recommendations

on what was to be done about the SABC and the sector going forward. Key to that was the issue of promoting local content and this saw the formation of policy around that. Local content regulation was critical for the country’s socio-economic development and so was the need to change mindsets about local content. There was this dark and negative view of local content and the perception out there was that it was not commercially viable. D: Why such a negative view; one can almost liken it so self-hate? P. M.: To be honest, minds were colonized at the time; people were accustomed to foreign content and that was what South Africa knew. There was no doubt that it was a question of decolonizing the minds. The regulations around local content were thus very important because without those we wouldn’t be where we are today. The SABC was also given obligations. It was given quotas around key genres. This was an important mechanism to ensure

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

that we sufficiently covered local content. The SABC was not unique in this, e.tv also had to abide by certain rules, and pay-tv also had its own local content obligations to meet. In my view that was one of the biggest milestones; ensuring that broadcasters carried local content. D: Apart from ensuring that South Africans watched stories that reflected their own realities, what was the other mandate? P. M.: The SABC had to ensure that it grows the industry. As a public broadcaster it had an obligation to outsource its content and support independent producers because in the past everything was done in-house. The critical thing to know is that the SABC was, for a long time, the sole driver of South African content, this was the case anyway prior to e.tv’s existence. Even when e.tv entered the market, they viewed local content as unprofitable and complained about falling audience numbers. In the past commercial entities, pay-tv, were willing to pay the money to develop local content as opposed to airing it. The regulations back then, gave an allowance that if you could not broadcast local content then you had to pay towards its development. Nowadays the situation is the opposite, there is a scramble for local content and everybody wants more of it. This has been a very interesting development for South African television. D: What has brought about this shift? P. M.: South Africans wanted to see their own stories reflected on their television screens. On the other hand, content producers realized that local content is a big mine field for those

wanting to invest in it. It’s now seen as big business. So that shift in perceptions continues to drive the development of local content.

above what is known as local languages, you also have marginalized languages these include Venda, Tsonga and Ndebele.

D: Can you elaborate on the issue of local content quotas? P. M.: In 2005 the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) started that process of amending the SABC’s license conditions and those became effective in 2006. It was an important landmark because it stipulated the quotas and differentiated the channels. As the SABC, we have to meet a certain amount of quotas across our channels. SABC3 is commercial and SABC1 and SABC2 are PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) that is a legislative arrangement. There were quota conditions and obligations for these three channels in addition to the general local content obligations. The amended license conditions became measurable and we had to comply. This also had financial as well as structural implications for the SABC. Budgets had to be reviewed in light of those conditions.

The other challenge has been capacity within the channels; we have three channels and we are required to meet those obligations. A tall order especially when you have to prescribe when those languages are aired e.g. prime time, so it became a challenge of mandate versus the availability of channels and airtime. Remember that the SABC is dependent on commercial markets to generate revenue. Come what may, we have to be commercially competitive as well as drive a public broadcasting mandate. Under the circumstances we have done quite well and have become a model to other broadcasters.

D: The SABC has sometimes been accused of not airing enough local content and not being compliant, your views on this? P. M.: The SABC’s local content performance is outlined in our quarterly reports which we give to the regulator, and we are measured over an annual period. Therein you will find how the SABC fares on the issue of compliance, so we definitely account to the regulator. Where we have admittedly been challenged is over the issue of marginalized languages. D: Why are the marginalized languages a challenge for the SABC? P. M.: The challenge has been around producing enough content in the marginalized languages. The problem is around capacity and it is an industrywide issue. Remember that over and

D: What have been the biggest lessons learnt in the last twenty years? P. M.: We learnt that things can change and we realized this when we became unprofitable during the 2009 financial crisis. This was a big lesson for us; it was during that time that investment in local content declined. Even with that setback the public broadcaster is still the biggest investor. D: Fast forward to 2014, we are now in a converged environment; where is the SABC headed? Content has become the biggest commodity in our business and there has been a big demand for it from non-traditional broadcasters such as mobile platforms. The scramble for content is good news for the industry because it will help grow it. Pay television is now investing millions in local content and we will continue to do the same. As long as the numbers of our audiences grow, we will invest more in local content. Going forward, what it important to note is that content is no longer a broadcasting issue it is broadly speaking an ICT issue, so whoever has the content and the platform is in the game.

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

SABC’s Mandate: Providing a Public Service and Staying Competitive Clara Nzima is Head of Programming at SABC1. She has seen the SABC through its many changes and understands the value and the impact of good public service broadcasting on a nation and the power it has on the lives of ordinary South Africans.

individuals already participating in the industry; provide them with training and ensure that they were up skilled in critical areas such as script writing and directing and so on. Most importantly the SABC takes audiences seriously. That is why programs such as “Yizo Yizo”, “Tsha Tsha” and “Soul City” were successful. They were premised on social realism and not only took the situation as experienced by the viewers but also gave tools on how to deal with those problems, be it social, economic or political. These programs were educational but also entertaining. We in fact coined the term popular public broadcasting, taking serous issues, be it educational and using entertainment and drama formats and every episode had a lesson to the viewer. The cast of Jozy H. The one-hour hospital drama series set in the fictional Johannesburg General Hospital is a Canada-South Africa co-production. The SABC was the first broadcaster to co-produce with foreign countries.

Disbook: You have been at the SABC for more than twenty years; that’s a long time. Looking back, in terms of programming, what worked and why? Clara Nzima: It’s been humbling to watch the industry grow. In the beginning, we did not have a lot of trained black professionals and part of the mandate of the SABC is to develop the industry. We had to work with

D: How important is the SABC to other broadcasters and why? C.N.: The SABC is a very important player on the continent. A program such as “Soul City” traveled. The producers ran workshops for other African broadcasters on how they could replicate what we had done. Not only were workshops run, we trained

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

producers and directors through the popular format. Another example is “Generations” it ran workshops with professionals from Kenya, who then went on to create their own soapie. Furthermore, the SABC regularly hosts its counterparts from within the continent on other issues; we share our procedures and on just how we run the business, so the SABC remains important in that regard. So it is beyond just selling our programs to them, we share institutional best practice. We’ve definitely been instrumental in the development of the trade. D: What have been some of the major successes of the SABC? C.N.: We have had quite a bit; it’s worth mentioning that we were possibly the first to do a co-production with a foreign country, Canada, with “Molo Fish”. There has subsequently been “Magic Cellar” and the hospital series “Jozi H”. Our programs have also won numerous international awards, in terms of quality, we meet international standards but most importantly we realized that our strength has been in telling our own stories, in an authentic manner, by our own people. Our audiences are at the center of our business.

D: The SABC has sometimes been accused of not doing enough to make sure that independent producers remain profitable as well as not commissioning enough work, how true is that? C.N.: That is a myth. We went through a dip during the 2009 financial crisis and up to about 2011 and that is the time when austerity measures were in place. This resulted in us playing a lot of repeats but we’ve bounced back. We are still the biggest investor in local content. Developing the industry is still very much our objective. The SABC never saw the mandate of providing local content as an onerous task, we embraced mandate and to a large extent we have delivered and used it as a competitive tool, and of course this led to copycat strategies.

for a number of reasons, it can either be for financial reasons or they can be a call by viewers. A recent example is “Intersexions”, where we had a lot of calls from viewers to bring it back. It is part of a normal broadcast model.

D: Why do we have so many repeats when there is a drive and a demand for local content? C.N.: Local programming is a huge part of our budget, and due to our business model, we have to realize some returns on investment. Yes we are a public broadcaster but our funding model demands that we have to fund ourselves and repeats are a normal part of international broadcast models. So we are not unique in that regard. Repeats need to be planned and they can happen

D: Has the SABC lost its core audience as a result of players such as e.tv and DStv? C.N.: Well I think there has been a slight loss but I would attribute it more to market expansion. It’s natural, where there is more competition, we will feel the pinch but as a network we are still market leaders. What we know for sure is that people follow programs not channels which is why we ensure that they get the kinds of programs they want on our network.

D: You’ve seen the SABC and its channels go through a lot of phases from TV1, TV2 and TV3, from CCV to Simunye, what has been at the heart of those changes? C.N.: In all that evolution the public service has not been lost. It’s just a positioning and marketing decision allowing us to keep up with the changing audience. Audiences are on the move, changing all the time and if you understand where your audience is then you know how best to deliver to their needs.

Magic Cellar celebrates Africa’s culture and traditions, while promoting reading as exciting and adventurous. The stories are based on African folktales.

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television The cast of “7de Laan”. For the third year in a row, the show won “Best Soap” Award at the 2014 South African Film and Television Awards. The story is about a bustling community living in Hillside, their interactions with each other, the gossip stories which spread like wildfire, the love, laughter and rivalry of family and friends.

SABC INTERNATIONAL TV PROGRAMMES SALES From inception to �� with a glimpse into the future 30

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

BY IDA MCNAIR, HEAD OF SABC INTERNATIONAL TV PROGRAMMES SALES AND ANDRE DE BEER, HEAD OF SABC DIGITAL INNOVATION

Africa as a continent has come a long way in recent times. As a uniquely African television broadcaster the SABC has also come a long way since its first show aired in ��.

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

The SABC has been licensing its much sought-after television content internationally for the past 25 years. The International Sales section was created in the early 90s when markets opened up to South African content after the lifting of trade sanctions. The world was keen to view the content, mainly in English, that had up to then not been available. Such was the interest in the SABC’s shows that an average of between 3 000 and 3 500 hours have been licensed to international broadcasters every year since the first licensing deal back in the early days. The SABC has, over the years, developed a unique relationship with several broadcasters over the globe and negotiate licensing deals with major players directly. However, in some markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Russia, the SABC developed its marketing efforts using well known distributors who had a better understanding of local conditions in those territories. During the TV boom of the 90s SABC content was already “out there” and could be seen on TV screens worldwide. In the 90s the demand for TV content increased tremendously. New cable and satellite stations emerged everywhere. The end of the Cold War had opened an opportunity for most governments to offer TV licenses to entrepreneurs, allowing the creation of new TV platforms that took TV programmes from one side of the planet to the other: the international TV industry had changed for ever. SABC used this golden opportunity to place content in countries like Russia and Turkey which would have been unthinkable just a couple of years before.

Idah McNair (right), SABC head of International Sales meet with Paul Mashatile (left), former Ministry of Arts and Culture, on the SABC stand during Discop Africa 2013.

Titles like “Westgate” (1982/85) and “Cape Rebel” were sold to Russia, Poland, Greece and many other territories around the world. In the process SABC also invested money in repurposing its content. “Cape Rebel” was originally produced in the local language, Afrikaans, but was dubbed into English and distributed internationally by a partner, Fox Lorber. Hundreds of hours of archive material were also re-versioned to increase its appeal in international markets between 1996 and 2000. Co-productions also took off with very good commercial ventures like “Molo Fish”, a coproduction in 1996 between SABC and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This was distributed by CBC International. Another reversioning project was between SABC and Southern Star from Australia. This joint venture re-versioned “Secrets of Nature” between 2000 and 2004. Footage from a long-running local nature show, “50/50”, was also coproduced in partnership with Discovery. “Homelands”, a top drama series, was distributed by Primetime UK and later by Granada TV. As public service broadcaster the SABC had to deliver on its language mandate.

This resulted in more and more shows being produced in the local languages. Hundreds of hours of new content were commissioned in the vernacular in order to meet the corporations mandate. For the first time the SABC was producing content that was reflecting South African culture, traditions and language. New soapies, comedies and wildlife material were shown in South Africa and marketed internationally like never before. SABC TV productions now cater for a multicultural community. These shows are produced by Africans for Africa and increasingly the SABC’s market shifted from Eurocentric markets to Africa where it is much in demand. SABC International Sales went on to become the largest content provider of bluechip African drama series on the continent. Just to mention some of those titles: “Going up”, “Suburban Bliss”, “Zero Tolerance”, “The Lab”, “Land of Thirst”, “Mzansi”, “Zone 14”, “When We Were Black”, “Home Affairs”, “Jozi-H”, “Hard Copy”, “7de Laan”, etc. Another trend that SABC identified was the concept of telenovelas (or as they are widely known “soapies”) that travelled from South and Central America into Africa to become one of the most sought-after products on the continent.

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

“Top Billing” presenters. The show is South Africa’s longestrunning, uninterrupted TV show for 22 years (Right) The cast of “Muvhango”. The immensely popular prime time soapie made its debut in 1997 and is sold today internationally with its website, a mobile version and the rights to carry it as catch-up TV video-on-demand on on-line platforms.

Soapies such as “Isidingo”, and “Muvhango”, to mention just two, have become very popular not only in Africa but also in communities as far afield as Barbados and Jamaica in the Caribbean. This was an achievement in its own right as these titles had to compete against top-notch American content. This genre is liked by the masses as they deeply touch the daily lives of its audience – and the storyline always stays African! Today, as technology evolves and globalization takes place, also in Africa, the commercial landscape for the exploitation of SABC content has started to change again. There is now a huge appetite for programmes with an African flavour and SABC has the right catalogue to satisfy that kind of demand. While SABC’s main customers used to be public broadcasters looking for a variety of programmes as they competed with new pay TV channels, today the programmes on the extensive catalogue is in demand by big African media conglomerates on pay TV and online TV Platforms. The TV industry has seen frequent and dramatic change over the past number of decades, but none has been so revolutionary as the latest changes brought on by new digital technologies. New terms like DTT, DTH, VOD, HbbTV and several

others get bandied about. The market is changing and SABC with it. It has joined the migration and increasingly SABC content is being delivered ready for these new digital formats. Production systems have been adapted and soon the first content will be delivered complete with the added features that digital media technologies make possible. The catalogue will have content with multiple language tracks, closed captions and associated data layers. And all of these will be available for licensing to broadcasters who are suitably equipped with digital play out and broadcast services. The SABC will have content ready for the big switchover to DTT when that comes in the near future. “Second screen” is another buzz word in the industry. Not only is the SABC actively involved in including social media discussions via Twitter and Facebook (and others) in its shows. Some of its shows are being designed and delivered as “social TV”. This means the content is designed with the social media included in the storyline from conceptualization. In this way the SABC shows are increasingly becoming interactive. In a unique development the SABC is combining even its prerecorded shows with live social media comments on the screen.

It is the vision of the SABC to also become an owner of digital media content in addition to the traditional mediums of radio and TV. For that reason the commissioning processes have been changed to ensure that the organization has content suited to the new platforms that currently exist and that are in the process of being developed. But the migration to digital does not stop there. It is also possible to include, with the TV broadcast, data services that offer immense value to people. The SABC’s DTT service already features a digital “newspaper” containing news in text format complete with pictures as the first such data service. It also has an electronic weather forecast and may soon boast flight arrivals from the major airports and share prices from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This is true convergence of media! So do not be surprised if, at DISCOP Africa 2044 or other international market, you have the option of acquiring any of the SABC’s premier TV shows such as “Muvhango” and “Isidingo” with a website, a mobile version of the show and the right to carry it as catch-up TV or video-ondemand on on-line platforms. That’s just the way the TV industry is evolving and the SABC with it.

Two main actors of “Yizo Yizo” (directed by Angus Gibson) a drama series addressing the problem of violence in the townships. It “was phenomenal television”, says Ncgobo.

Challenges And Potential Within The Business Of Content Kethiwe Ncgobo is an independent producer (“Thola” and “Mfolozi Street”) and former Head of Drama at the SABC. Now, she talks to Disbook about the role of public broadcasting and what the “cross-fertilization of content” means.

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

Disbook: In your view how important is a public broadcaster to a society or a nation? Kethiwe Ncgobo: I was an independent before joining the SABC and I had lots of gripes. It felt as though there wasn’t enough space for everyone. This was before 2004. When I was working there, we tried to put systems in place that would ensure that everyone got a fair chance. We possibly went a bit overboard because what then followed were lock jams in the system, for example, getting a contract from one point to the other took a lot of signatures which didn’t make the decision making matrix any leaner. Public broadcasting is very important for a country and a nation. You are talking to the nation about what or who it is, where it is going and where it has come from. The SABC has the potential to be a great institution and it has to find a way in which it can keep operating with the public in mind. The fact that it has to work on a commercial imperative also puts a lot more pressure on its deliverables. Public broadcasters the world over find themselves desperately wanting independence and yet finding themselves in a political quandary. It is part of the fabric of being a public broadcaster. D: What is your view on the type of content on South Africans screens right now? K.N.: Making a new level of content is a process, it’s not an event. The content is getting better and better, but we need more daring content that asks the difficult questions. I accept that our audiences can be very sensitive but as content producers we have to challenge them as well as ourselves. We can be a little bit more risqué and this country still has so many more stories to tell. D: If you look back over the past twenty years programming-wise, what stands out for you? K.N.: Programs such as Yizo Yizo stand out; that was phenomenal television. It

challenged everybody and there were many reactions to it and that’s why people still talk about it. It pushed the envelope and got the reactions. D: What are some of the challenges facing producers today and what are the barriers to entry? K.N.: It seems as though there isn’t enough space for new entrants, if you don’t have a track record it’s hard to get in. Commissioning editors get comfort from people they have worked with, at the end of the day, it’s about a quality product for the audience. To tell a story is a skill, so we need to do a lot more training. If there’s more content to be produced, it means that you need more skilled people to produce that content. Broadcasters have to ensure that there is a skilled pool from which they can draw from. D: Has the industry transformed? K.N.: Not adequately; there could be many more black producers but there’s still not enough. Yes, there are skilled black practitioners who work in the space but they don’t get enough work. D: What does the future hold for content on South African television and the rest of the continent? K.N.: As an industry, we need to find ways to work more closely with government. I mean take the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for example, there are only two genres that can get funding and those are documentaries and fiction. There are other genres that are just as important. We should lobby to get that changed. We have to become savvy about how we make partnerships across the continent. There are a lot of channels in this country, both across the public broadcaster and on paid TV, and all of those are going to need content so that represents an opportunity. Look at the number of countries across the continent, they are also going to be requiring more content as a result of

DTT, this represents yet another opportunity. D: What are your thoughts on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and the future of content generation at the SABC? K.N.: The SABC is now operating in a multichannel environment. This presents a real opportunity for the growth of the sector and for more independent producers of content to get work. Local content has more resonance and more people will watch local content if it’s on. An ideal situation would be to get into co-productions with the broadcasters, where we bring a chunk of money and we own some of those rights. That means that producers then also have an incentive to sell and market that content and to make it of the highest quality because they are partners. Currently it’s 100% commissioned and it means that it’s owned by the SABC and sometimes the budgets are so small that you end up even subsidizing that project. Sometime ago the SABC agreed to do co-productions with the industry but somehow it doesn’t feel as though it’s part of the broad model. It doesn’t feel as though there are many people who have gotten these co-productions. If it works well it will see producers creating real jobs and growing the industry. On the issue of DTT people are gearing up to be making more content but at the moment it seems that the broadcasters haven’t decided exactly how much content or what this means and how they are going to make this content happen. If we do not have a policy framework to work from it seems that those decision cannot be made. Convergence is something that has been really important as makers of content and it has resulted in the cross fertilization of content. South Africa has the opportunity to resell its content into the rest of the continent and make a huge impact in that way.

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

Strange Bedfellows: The SABC From The Other Side Oscar-nominated director (“Mandela”) Angus Gibson is a founding member of Free Filmmakers and one of South Africa’s most important documentarians. Having worked with SABC in the past, he’s seen firsthand the ups and downs of making and marketing quality African material. He spoke with Disbook about his on-again, off-again relationship with the broadcaster and dealing with the whims of a mercurial industry.

Disbook: What was it like to work with the SABC? Angus Gibson: Well, let me begin by saying that I have only worked with the SABC on two projects Yizo Yizo and Zone 14. My relationship with the SABC predates 1994. I remember around 1989 the SABC claimed to be transforming. I had been approached to make a series of films on the history of Soweto and hoped that we would get support for the project.

Actors Siyabonga Twala (right) and Mampho Brescia (left) in the highly popular Mzansi Magic’s “Isibaya” created by Angus Gibson and produced by Bomb Films Production.

D: Why that specific project, why were you so sure that it would see the light of day? A.G.: Well, at the time there was very little research and writing on Soweto, so it was a pioneering project. What felt exciting to me was the fact that people that had been part of the first removals to Soweto were still alive, so it felt like it was the last window of opportunity to speak to get a firsthand account. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the SABC basically said “oh we don’t think our audience would be interested in something on Soweto,” and they turned it down. We ended up getting the bulk of the money from Channel 4 in Britain.

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

Innocent Masuku as Maradona in “Zone 14” a soccerthemed drama series on SABC1

D: How did you then end up working with them on Yizo Yizo? A.G.:A number of my friends who in the past had not done work with the SABC were now employed by them, so it no longer felt like a hostile environment. Some had been part of a collective called Free Filmmakers based in Yeoville in the 80s. When I came back from the US, myself and Teboho Mahlatsi, who had been an intern at Free Filmmakers, got together to start writing a feature project. We were struggling to raise finance. There was a tender out for an educational series and we were encouraged by Isaac Shongwe, our mentor at the time, to pitch for the series, and we got it. D: What was the objective of that project? A.G.: It was to draw attention to the crisis in schools in the townships. The basis of our proposal was to do extensive research before we did any writing. D: How was your working relationship with the SABC in light of the strong mixed reactions Yizo Yizo received? A.G.: The SABC were an incredible partner during that process. The people in leadership had an entirely different mindset to those I had interacted with in the 80s. On Yizo Yizo we wanted to

experiment, push boundaries and they had the courage to let us do that. At the time it broke many conventions of what had previously been shown on television. The first season felt like it was a game changer in the country and the response was very divided. When there was an outcry against the series, the SABC stood by us and lobbied for support from people in government. The response of the youth was mainly extremely positive and we were allowed to continue. D: What made it so successful? A.G.: Language was a thing. It was the first time that people spoke in an urban South African lingo in a way that made sense. Many black South Africans, for the first time, saw themselves represented on television in a way that they felt was real. Yizo Yizo won awards everywhere around the world and we were happy with that. D: South Africa is still polarized according to racial lines – as a white male producing a film about black people – were there any obstacles? A.G.: That was a factor. Yizo Yizo was accused of having a white agenda which would inevitably denigrate black people. When Zone 14 got going, there was an instruction that there were to be no “negative stereotypes”.

D: What is your working relationship with the SABC now? A.G.: We are not working with the SABC now, which we regret. The SABC has a great audience. Making Zone 14 was never an easy process. It always felt like it lacked a solid partner in the broadcaster. We would complete a season, and build a team for the next, and there would be indecision about whether we should actually continue. As a result we lost crew and actors to the competition; e.tv snapped up actors for Rhythm City. D: When did you stop working with the SABC? A.G.: Latterly my interface with the SABC on Zone 14 was a good one by way of Khulile Nxumalo, the commissioning editor we worked with. He was a great collaborator. But in 2011 Zone 14 was not re-commissioned. So we created Isibaya, and now we are happily working with Mzansi Magic on DStv. Budgets are tight but they make clear decisions and they’ve been very supportive. D: What is the future of local content in South Africa? A.G.: There is space for more and more content but budgets are getting leaner. Countries around the world address that by doing co-productions. The SABC owns all the work it commissions in its entirety. It’s the same with e.tv and M-Net. It’s not a great model to encourage production companies to get involved in creating co-productions. I suspect that that will only change through government intervention. Right now, I am much more aware of competition happening between the local broadcasters for better content. I believe a more competitive environment will be a healthier environment for producers, but that remains to be seen.

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

A Broadcaster For “The African Agenda” For Monde Twala (pictured), “e.tv is truly a product of democracy”.

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

Monde Twala, Group Head: e.tv Channels Division, reflects on his 15 years with the free-toair broadcaster and the changing landscape of African broadcast.

by Warren Holden

Launched in 1998, four years after the advent of democracy in South Africa, e.tv arrived on the country’s broadcast scene as its first independent, free-toair, commercial broadcaster, carving out a niche for itself somewhere between the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the pay TV giant Multichoice. “We are now a teenager humbled by the market we serve,” says Monde Twala, who has worked at the broadcaster for 15 of its 16 years in operation so far, “and we are starting to mature quite nicely. We started off with one channel and a simple schedule, which we adapted over time to be a lot more local. I’ve been very fortunate, having been here almost since the beginning, to have seen the growth over the years. We’ve had to adapt to the market and carve our own identity and that hasn’t been an easy journey, but we’ve come so far in 16 years, that it feels like we’ve been around for much longer. We’ve had to really push our way through the challenges to define ourselves and develop a content mix that reflects diversity in language, genre and culture, that is accessible to all South Africans.”

e.tv, Twala says, is truly a product of democracy. “We started out with a drive to be the channel for everyone right from the start. We have this motto: ‘e is for everyone’, we had our ‘Be Free with e’ channel identifier. Over the years, we have managed to play and provide that diversity that the market needed. Our core responsibility has always been to provide free television to the many people who can’t afford to pay for television – and that’s currently more than 60% of South Africans. We work hard to offer them content that resonates, programming that is entertaining and informative, and that can be a window on their world, that can be credible, independent, offer diverse content reflecting both panAfrican and international perspectives.” From being a single channel, e.tv slowly grew its multichannel bouquet, introducing eNCA, now one of the continent’s leading news channels and eKasi+, a showcase for original films and series reflecting South African stories and culture. In 2014, the broadcaster launched its own multichannel platform, OpenView HD, which currently runs 18 channels – a number set to grow, Twala says. As the broadcasting industry in South Africa – and indeed Africa as a whole – is shaken up by the emergence of more and more multichannel and multiplatform content carriers, Twala is

optimistic about the role e.tv will play in this expanding market. “A competitive market is a strong one,” he says. “We expect new broadcasters to be licensed and to enter the market, this simply indicates growth. Everyday new technology emerges that could shake up the industry; non-linear content delivery seems to be making huge strides. I don’t believe that traditional broadcasting will fade away just yet. Families watch TV together – that hasn’t changed. The TV screen is still the centre of the household. But multichannel and multiplatform are out in full force and we have to think about how the content we create will be consumed across all available platforms.” The lack of international distribution of South African content to rest of Africa and the world beyond is a major concern for Twala and he is committed to ensure that e.tv plays an integral part in changing that situation. “The bulk of sub-Saharan countries now have access to e.tv,” he says. “It’s not only about reflecting and catering to your own society or market, it is also about being proudly African and representing the continent. We need to start telling the South African story and export programming across and beyond the continent. We must create sustainable business models that broadly enhance the African agenda. That’s something to look out for in the next 20 years. We need to preserve African stories, we produce excellent content, we offer some of the best crews in the world – let’s establish a united African agenda. Of course we’re all competing as individual media owners and channels – that’s as it should be – but we can work together to advance that agenda and it would serve all of us. We have to compete internationally, so now let’s push that to showcase the African dream our way.”

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

Twenty Years Of Pay Tv In Africa Mark Rayner, Chief Operating Officer of Multichoice South Africa, looks back on 20 years of broadcasting in the company’s home country and beyond.

the creation of quality local content. The soap opera “Egoli” and the awardwinning investigative journalism show “Carte Blanche” were among the successful local productions that M-Net launched, strongly differentiating itself from its competition.

The top 9 of “Idols” 2014- Back row (clockwise): London, Bongi, Tumi, Roxy, Demi, Alize - Front row (L-R): Vincent B, Musa, Kyle

By Warren Holden

African pay TV broadcaster MultiChoice celebrates its 20th birthday this year. Its foundation coincided with South Africa’s much-lauded democratic transition, which reintegrated the country and its citizens – both private and corporate – into the world at large. The broadcaster has thus grown with the country it calls home. But, as COO Mark Rayner points out, the origins of MultiChoice go back even further than that to 1985, when Africa’s first pay TV operator, M-Net, first began

broadcasting from its headquarters in Johannesburg. Opening in a country that for years had got its television content from a single, state-owned broadcaster, M-Net faced two major, related challenges: how to secure content from international suppliers when it stood in direct opposition to the national broadcaster, and how to win consumers over to the idea of a television channel for which they would have to pay. To tackle these problems M-Net took a progressive approach to its acquisition of international content and invested in

In 1994, with Nelson Mandela beginning his term in office as the country’s first democratically elected president, M-Net had already expanded its footprint beyond South Africa’s borders to subscribers in 20 other African countries. MultiChoice, M-Net’s newly formed subscriber management arm, began to drive further expansion, harnessing technology to create the very first satellite television operator outside of the United States – DStv. “Satellite offered us the concept of a multichannel platform,” Rayner says. “It was a huge investment, not only in technology in the form of new decoders and satellite capacity but also in content.” The years that followed have seen the democratisation of broadcasting, largely as a result of technological advances that opened up the production, transmitting and

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

The isiZulu-language soap opera Isibaya is currently one of the most popular shows on South African television, and the jewel in the crown of Multichoice’s Mzansi Magic channel.

consumption of content to more people than ever before. Also, as the democratic dispensation took hold in South Africa so the demographics of MultiChoice’s subscriber base and its content needs began to shift and expand. “There are two elements to this,” Rayner explains. “One is the growth of the subscriber business to the point where we now have over 100 channels in our Premium package. We’ve been able to allow more affordable pricing – there’s now the DStv Extra, DStv Compact, DStv Family and DStv Access packages. These have made it more accessible to everybody, whereas in the old days, it was more of a high-end product. That opened up an interesting growth path. The second element is the content production side of the business – M-Net and SuperSport. The growth there has been massive.” The shifts in the creation of local content – both qualitative and

quantitative – is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of MultiChoice’s progress during the years of democracy. When M-Net first launched, the majority of its content was sourced from American and British production companies. Audiences had little or no appetite for local content. After the democratic transition, however, a South African identity began to develop of which all sectors of society became willing to take ownership. Public faith in the quality of locally made shows improved dramatically and a demand for homegrown content – in all the country’s major languages – took root and began to thrive. MultiChoice accordingly made sizeable investments in local productions. The flagship M-Net channel started to broadcast South African versions of major international reality TV formats, such as “Idols”, “Survivor” and “MasterChef”, which proved extremely popular among the public. Entire

channels catering to various local tastes were added to MultiChoice’s DStv packages, including the Africa Magic and Mzansi channels, providing movies and series such as the enormously popular Zulu-language daily soap opera “Isibaya”; youth entertainment channel VUZU; the popular music showcase Channel O and the dedicated Afrikaanslanguage channel kykNET. In 2014, MultiChoice launched a massive PR campaign celebrating the fact that its investment in local content had reached the R1 billion mark (roughly US$89.5 million at the current exchange rate). “The old days of taking imported content and selling it to everybody are very much over,” Rayner says. “People now want to see their lives, their stories reflected in the TV content they watch. Our investment in local content affects the entire industry all the way down the value chain so we’re quite proud of the impact we’ve had on the industry. It has been a very interesting journey.”

DISBOOK #5 | 2014 — 20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television

“Portrait of an icon – South Africa’s Queen of Talk” BY KITSO KGABOESELE

In the early 90s South Africa was beginning to crawl out of its dark shell and embrace the reality of its hardworn democracy. Reconciliation efforts were underway at a political level and former President Nelson Mandela made a clarion call to South Africans living abroad to come back home and contribute towards rebuilding the country. One woman boldly added her voice to the conversation but she did it her way. Her mission was quite simple; to get the citizens to talk to each other. On 3 November 1992, Felicia MabuzaSuttle broke onto South African screens as the host of “Top Level”, a talk show she describes as “therapeutic” and that would later begin to get the nation talking about issues closest to its heart. She was a mere six days back in the country when going live on air. That date and her opening line, “good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first edition of Top Level, It’s great to be back home after 19 years”, remain printed indelibly on her mind. She recalls the challenges she faced as hers became the popular face and voice occupying the 10:30 pm slot on the SABC’s then TSS Channel. In her autobiography, “Dare to Dream”, she notes, “I was back home on a mission to play an active and positive role in rebuilding a new South Africa”. Top Level which later became The Felicia Show ran until 2004. Growing up as a young girl in Sophiatown and later Soweto, MabuzaSuttle knew that she wanted a life far

from ordinary. Her professional career would later become a juggling act between transatlantic motherhood and marriage, hosting a talk show, as well as holding down a full time job at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and later at South African Airways (SAA). Mabuza-Suttle’s decision to come back home had arguably been a difficult one, leaving her husband (Earl Suttle) and two young girls (Lindiwe and Zanele) back in the Unites States. With two degrees in communications under her belt, she had also been recognized for having been, at the time, the first Black South African woman with a graduate degree in broadcasting. She believed that she had what it took to stand in front of South Africans, ask them the difficult questions, and allowed them to publicly lay bear the contents of their hearts. The South African media environment was hostile and she admits that it was not easy. “All I can say is, for me, it was a difficult but extremely fulfilling journey”. Mabuza-Suttle has had an illustrious career as a host of the first audience talk show in South Africa. She’s had the rare privilege of interviewing extraordinary people such as Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Dianna Ross, Johnny Cochran, Jesse Jackson, Miriam Makeba, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the list is endless. It should then come as no surprise that she is fondly referred to as South Africa’s “Queen of Talk” and referenced as having played a pivotal role in paving the way for many women in country’s television and

media industry. She has also been described as “South Africa’s answer to Oprah Winfrey”, a crown she wears hesitantly adding, “I admire Oprah greatly, Barbara Walters is another role model but God is in the mould of creating originals, not duplicates”. She is a formidable business woman, notably one of the founding members of Pamodzi Investment Holdings; a business conglomerate that operates across a multiplicity of sectors with a large focus on black entrepreneurship and investment in South Africa. She has been singled out as an inspiring force in the country’s nation building path and as a television brand and media personality, her contribution has been repeatedly noted. An SABC survey found her to be amongst “the 100 Great South Africans”. Getting South Africans talking was for her “a calling and a crusade”. While doing so, she simultaneously broke new ground and opened doors for younger generations, particularly women. To many who have come after her, Mabuza-Suttle is to talk what the late South African singer Brenda Fassie was to pop music, an icon! These days she straddles between South Africa and the United States as a business woman, an author, a motivational and conference speaker particularly on youth and women empowerment as well as giving talks about the continent and changing the negative perceptions thereof. She also hosts “Conversations with Felicia”, a talk show on the Africa Channel, which airs in the US and the Caribbean.

20 Years Of Freedom, 20 Years Of Television — DISBOOK #5 | 2014

“I ADMIRE OPRAH GREATLY, BARBARA WALTERS IS ANOTHER ROLE MODEL BUT GOD IS IN THE MOULD OF CREATING ORIGINALS, NOT DUPLICATE”