Bafana Khumalo takes a look at an ambitious new educational series aimed at addressing health problems
A WOMAN rushes into a clinic, tears rolling down her face as she begs a doctor to save her dying baby; they gallantly do their best but, alas, they lose the child. St Elsewhere? No, Soul City, a new CCV television series set in and around a clinic in an informal settlement.
It’s a 13-part series which combines the resources and skills of big business, the creative fraternity and multimedia technology in an ambitious attempt to address health education problems. Almost R6-million was donated by the private sector.
What sets Soul City apart from other educational TV projects is the attempt to reach as wide an audience as possible through a combination of television, radio and the printed word.
While the TV series will be aired on Monday evenings, an accompanying comic strip will be published in Argus newspapers. And for people who do not have access to TV or the press, there will be a radio version of the series, broadcast on Radio Zulu, Radio Sotho and Radio Xhosa. Some 600 000 copies of the serialised version of the story will be inserted into the participating newspapers, and 200 000 copies will be distributed by BP and Nestle.
The TV script reflects the growing trend in local TV presentations to portray society as it exists. The dialogue is split into English, Zulu and seSotho. The characters do not only look at the health issues at hand, but also at people’s day-to-day problems which in some way influence their well-being.
A factory worker talks about the lack of creche facilities at the company, for example, and discusses whether the workers’ lot would not be improved if one was introduced.
But in its attempt to keep up with nouveau South African TV, where our heroes and villains are constantly being redefined, Soul City sometimes falls flat. An instance was the portrayal of a black man in the first episode, shown this week, who stays at home getting drunk while his wife brings home the bacon. In his drunken stupor he forgets to take care of the baby and she dies. It was just too convenient, too cut and dried, to be convincing.
Hopefully, with the progression of the story line, the characters will have the benefit of some fleshing out.