Media News South Africa

SABC soapie: Episode 42...And then there were three... make that two

NEWSWATCH: The nation's most expensive tragicomic soapie continues with more board members resigning, leaving just three (well, two now), reports Daily Maverick, so the Parliamentary committee tasked with ending the Faulty Towers farce has to find an interim board... fast, reports Mail & Guardian, which also reports that it was SLOWTIME! at the recent Saftas.
SABC soapie: Episode 42...And then there were three... make that two

For more:


  • Daily Maverick: SABC crisis no 349: Interim board expected soon... Who is writing the script for this? Our national broadcaster appears to be becoming more of a national embarrassment with every passing moment, and bear in mind that we - the taxpayers - are funding this nonsense.

    Sipho Hlongwane, writing in Daily Maverick, recounts the sorry saga that is the SABC right now.

    I wonder how this mess might be described as a TV soapie...

    In the latest episode of South Africa's longest running and most expensive soapie Board Games, all but three of the remaining board members resign, but as they head for the door, who knows what lies beyond... Can Suzanne, Pippa and Claire make a go of it? Can our three intrepid board members turn the corporation around? They are women... will they roar? Only time will tell. Meanwhile Hlaudi weathers the storm... or does he? And Mike is going... or is he?

    Stay with us as this drama unfolds... It's a stirring tale of intrigue, whispers in the corridors... and power behind the scenes - and your screens!

    Latest: Subsequent to writing and posting this Newswatch, we have learned that Pippa Green resigned from then board this morning. See City Press: Another SABC board member resigns.

  • Mail & Guardian: Parliament committee expected to dissolve SABC board... Many people might wonder if there is any realistic chance of cobbling together a board that can actually do what it is supposed to do. In the meantime, however, Parliament's oversight committee on communications has to get a move on to appoint an interim SABC board to hold what's left of the fort until a new board is appointed.

  • Mail & Guardian: Saftas: From dull to disaster... It's SLOWTIME! Well, that seems to have been the case at the recent Saftas...and Rhodé Marshall, writing in Mail & Guardian, says that not even Samuel L Jackson trotting on stage could save a night that apparently started slow and tapered off into nothing.

    It appears from Marshall's review of the evening that it staggered from one foul-up to another - and apparently last year's effort also had its share of downs.

    Well, look on the bright side: if you missed the Saftas this year, you will have the chance to miss them again next year - unless of course something quite drastic is done to change what seems to be a sick production to a slick one.

    Surely it can't be that hard? As Marshall writes "Just like last year, the badly-produced show had people wandering in front of the cameras and winners walking all the way from the back of the room when their names were called (leaving them no time to make their acceptance speeches)."

    Surely it can't be that hard to tell people to stop walking in front the cameras, and seat the nominees closer to the stage?

    At least that would be a start.

About Rod Baker

Rod Baker is Content Director at Bizcommunity.com. A journalist since before computers, he worked on a wide range of magazines and, in his youth, rose through the ranks from being a lowly and abused sub-editor, to a high and still abused editor and publisher. He has been editor and publisher of a number of magazines, as well as a newspaper. He has edited many books, and written a number too. Email him at moc.ytinummoczib@dor.
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