Local drama series Zero Tolerance has been selected as a 2004 International Emmy Award regional semi-finalist in the category of drama series.
Nominations for this coveted award will be announced on October 4. Episodes 7 and 9 of Zero Tolerance have been identified for the award.
Written by Mitzi Booysen and Geoff Newton, episode 7 dealt with the sinister world of child sexual abuse. This episode is in part based on the story of Baby Tshepang, who was raped when she was nine months old.
In episode 9, a comrade of Denzela's from struggle days, Sherry Green, is killed mysteriously. When the family approaches Denzela to help, she is brought together with Thabo's commander from exile (and Siso's godfather) "F1".
Now he's a top brass in the army. But are they on the same side now? Denzela has to find out.
"I am thrilled for Zero Tolerance to receive this international recognition," said producer Hillary Blecher.
"It validates the risks we took and the amount of hard work and dedication put into the project by so many people.
"Thank you to SABC 2 for seeing the potential and giving us the opportunity to do this work. Only by having the opportunity and support that we have had can we continue to grow and learn and hopefully contribute to the TV industry in this country."
Says Aletta Alberts, general manager of SABC2: "We are honoured to be linked with Zero Tolerance, and will continue to support quality local products such as this. Being a proudly South African channel, we can boast that we don't just take local programmes for the sake of them being local - we take them because they are of a high standard and the evidence lies in recognition such as this."
The second series of Zero Tolerance is currently being screened on SABC2 on Thursdays at 7.30pm.
The cast includes Moshidi Motshegwa, Ben Kruger, Patrick Shai and others such as Meshack Mavuso. It also had a talented team of writers who for the most part, deal with well-researched subject matter.
Commissioning editor Rosa Keet is proud to have spotted the potential in this project.
"What I think is fantastic about Zero Tolerance is that it's multi-lingual, multi-cultural and works like a bomb," she says. "This is a first for South Africa, with a good mix of colours and language and also has the first female detective. This is the kind of way in which we will go forward."