At a function held in Johannesburg on 30 May, SABC3 launched its new local programming line-up, which includes two drama series. The channel also used the opportunity to introduce the new SABC3 GM, Thoko Modise.
“Broadcaster success anywhere in the world is founded on the investment and production of local programmes. SABC3 needs solid, real, high quality programmes that are our very own. We hope that our audiences will fall in love with our own programmes,” said Modise.
Leading the local line-up are the two new dramas, The LAB and One Way. The LAB is set in the world of high-stakes Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and has been given the prime time Law & Order slot (20h30) on Tuesdays from 27 June. At the launch, executive producer David Jammy of Curious Pictures described The LAB as an intellectually challenging drama set in the financial world. (The May issue of Screen Africa ran an in-depth feature on The LAB.)
One Way, produced by David Max Brown, is set to take SABC3 viewers behind the walls of suburban South Africa. It delves into the intriguing lives of four families who live in a townhouse complex. Beyond the seemingly perfect exterior, all is not what it seems. (Wednesdays at 20h30 from 21 June)
Produced for SABC3 by Mafisa Media in co-operation with the World Conservation Union, The Healing Power of Nature is a 13-part series of 24-minute films that examine the various, eclectic and multi-facetd ways in which different groups of people in Southern Africa are using their contact with, and preservation of, wilderness to reverse the destruction of the past. (Sundays 18h30 from 6 August)
Experienced TV and radio journalist Redi Direko hosts Rights & Recourse, a new daily talk show which aims to make the law accessible to the average South African. (Mondays to Fridays 12h00 from 21 March)
The four-part Angel Films series New Conversations is described as “an intriguing, textured and inspired series which delves into the minds and souls of the SA nation”. This is a collaboration with SABC Education and the Parliamentary Millennium Project. (Wednesdays 21h30 from 7 June)
SA actor Lionel Newton’s (Gums & Noses) unwitting and self-destructive behaviour comes to the fore in the second series of Sorted. Produced by T.O.M Pictures, this comedy weaves ironic stories around the lives of the main characters’ sensitivities. (Thursdays 20h30 from 1 June)
At the launch, SABC3 bid a formal farewell to Michael van Dyk, former publicity head of the channel. A replacement has not yet been confirmed.
