Multi-million rand production tender for Soul City awarded to Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth was chosen as a winner after a lengthy evaluation process. It was shortlisted, along with Clinic Television, which produced the previous Soul City Drama series. "We were impressed with the calibre of pitches that we received. They are a demonstration that the industry is growing in leaps and bounds," says Lebo Ramofoko, Manager for Series 7.

"Ultimately, we awarded the tender to Word of Mouth for the potential to offer our loyal audience an exciting project that works with the elements that have made Soul City a brand name but also add new elements," she said.

Production companies were asked to provide detailed treatments for the new series which looked at creative treatment, an understanding of the target audience, and production capacity. Word of Mouth, a black-owned production company, has contracted some of the most creative emerging talents in the industry today.

"While we were more than happy with the work of Clinic Television, we put the series out to tender on a regular basis so that we can continually inject new energy into our projects," says Dr Garth Japhet, Executive Director of Soul City. "We hope to continue our relationship with Clinic Television into the future as we seek to provide our audience with cutting edge, innovative media products."

The Soul City drama series has been a mainstay of South African edutainment since its inception. Now in its seventh series, the drama series remains the flagship education vehicle of the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Education. Independent Monitoring and Evaluation reports show that many South Africans derive their primary healthcare information from the Soul City series. "It is this commitment to provide quality health and development information to South Africans that led us to recall two of the leading bidders to provide us with a ten minute pilot of one of the episodes," says John Molefe, head of Marketing and Publicity.

The Soul City tender is one of the bigger productions in the local industry. In addition to producing cutting edge dramatic television, Soul City also has a commitment to developing new talent in the local industry.