Johannesburg - Newzroom Afrika, the new 24-hour TV news station on DStv channel 405, is launching on Thursday, and its owners are set to shake off the cloud that hung over their predecessors.
Newzroom Afrika will go on air at 5.30pm with a documentary called The Making of Newzroom Afrika prior to their prime-time news at 6pm, with former eNCA news anchor Cathy Mohlahlana and journalists Sam Mkokeli and Marc Lewis. The channel will broadcast from its new home in Linden, Joburg.
Entrepreneurs Thabile Ngwato, 28, and Thokozani Nkosi, 43, have roped in about 200 staff members who will run the news production around the clock from Gauteng, including other bureaus in Cape Town, Durban, Free State, North West, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. They will also make use of stringers and correspondents to cover news in the Southern African region.
Speaking exclusively with The Star yesterday, the duo said they had kept to their promise of prioritising employees from the defunct Afro World View (formerly known as ANN7).
“We employed 66% of their employees who applied for jobs with us. So out of the 57 who applied from ANN7, 40 of them were recruited by us as journalists and technical staff. When we opened our recruitment drive, we said we would prioritise them and they would have to go through the normal hiring process if they qualify. After that was done, we opened the recruitment to the public in mid-February,” Ngwato said.
In setting up its editorial team, Newzroom Afrika roped in some of the reputable individuals in editorship roles and in its independent editorial board chaired by former press ombudsman Joe Thloloe along with SA Press Council advocate and Wits journalism educator Dinesh Balliah and former Mail & Guardian editor Chris Roper.
Newzroom Afrika has hired Thulasizwe Simelane, Ayabonga Cawe, Sizwe Dhlomo, Gugu Mhlungu and Karyn Maughan, among others.
“We are completely different from what is currently out there. We are a third voice and we are not like our predecessors as our duty is to report news that is balanced, and we trust the editorial team that we have set up.
"We, the owners, will not be involved in editorial matters as our focus will only be on the business side. By doing that we want to give our news team editorial independence. We are about nation building. If the government is doing well we will report on it, and we will also do the same when there are allegations of corruption,” Nkosi said.
He added that their business model would mainly be based on revenue generated from advertisers and a carriage fee from MultiChoice.
The station's target market is between ages 26 and 39.
“Our intention is for our news to be digitally driven, meaning they will be accessible via cellphones and other platforms, and we want to bring the audience to our core platform, which is TV,” Ngwato said.
Nkosi said they were not intimidated to launch just few days before the elections: “Launching now will give us a platform to be part of the conversation as we will be bringing a new third voice into the dialogue."
@lindilesifile