SABC soapies on slippery slope

1 December 2019

The bright sparks at the SABC’s faulty towers confirmed a week after Sunday World broke the story about the demise of the once-loved soapie Isidingo will be discontinued. The soapie’s viewership plummeted and left SABC management with little option but to can it.

This happened as the SABC was in tough negotiations with producers of Generations: The Legacy about the possible reduction of storyline time from 24 to 22 minutes an episode in order to accommodate more advertising.

The demise of Isidingo and, with it, many jobs, is indeed tragic. It offers us an opportunity to re-examine how this once popular drama has now come undone. Is there a causal link between the SABC’s financial woes and the untimely discontinuation of Isidingo?

If so, why is it that the SABC1 telenovela Uzalo, for example, retains its No 1 position as the most-watched?

Our view is that there is an inter­face between poor funding and inferior content and below-par talent acquisi­tion. It is important to delineate between production houses struggling with creativity and those impacted by auster­ity measures in the public broadcaster.

In our estimation, Uzalo has a rivet­ing storyline that has resonance with the majority of people in the country. It succeeds in spite of whatever fiscal con­straints the SABC might have. We hope, though, that this success is not cut short.

We also hope that the SABC strat­egy of creating more advertising time for Generations does not lead to viewers losing interest in the second-most watched soapie – setting it on an irrevocable path traversed by Isidingo. That is a tragedy we hope the bright sparks at the SABC can avoid.

Now we talking integrity, finally

The recommendation by the ANC integrity commission chairman, George Mashamba, that former state security minister Bongani Bongo should step aside until he’s cleared of criminal charges levelled against him, is a breath of fresh air in our politics.

It has always been concerning for us how a leader accused of attempting to pay a bribe to an evidence leader in an investigation by the standing commit­tee of public enterprises into Eskom in 2017 could be elected chairman of a portfolio committee after so much talk about a new dawn.

In the same vein, it is concerning that President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule had to wait for Mashamba to tell them this: “Cde Bongo should be instructed to step aside with immediate effect from all positions and activities of the ANC, including his deployment into public office by the organisation, until his name has been cleared of the criminal charges levelled against him.”

We couldn’t agree more. The fight against corruption must not just be pur­sued, but must be seen to be pursued.


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