To what do you attribute Ya Mampela‘s success in capturing the imagination of the black youth? What is it that has brought about the accolades you’ve received?
There is no formula for capturing the imagination of an audience. Television is similar to making music and writing stories, it’s like making a certain kind of noise and then hoping that there are people out there who will not only hear the noise but will love your noise over everyone else’s. To do this, your noise has to be tuned into what provokes the viewers to feel and think. So although there isn’t a formula, there are some things we’ve done to ensure that we have a strong relationship with the public. We’ve become a lot more viewer focused. We’ve put the “public” back into public broadcasting. Most importantly, the channel understands its youth market. The people who run it are presently living, or have recently lived the experience of our viewers. We work with the following maxim [by Clive Barnes]: “Television is the first truly democratic culture — the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what people want. The most terrifying thing is what people want.”
Ya Mampela seems to subsist on the premise that, correctly positioned, television can alter society for the better. Is this possible? How do you measure the (positive) impact that your programming is having on its viewership?
SABC1 Ya Mampela [“the real thing”] exists to entertain, inform and educate its viewers. Obviously, like all other media and social players, we want to have a positive impact on society. However, this cannot be achieved simply by “positioning”. Content drives information and education. On SABC1 we have the most watched news bulletin in the country. We have factual programmes at prime time with ratings that drama and entertainment programmes would be proud of.
South Africa is one of the few countries in the world where prime-time educational television exists. Programmes such as Yizo Yizo, Zola7, Soul City, Tsha Tsha, are not just educational, but the highest-rated programmes weekly. Extensive research shows they have a positive impact on viewers for specific social concerns. But can these shows claim to “alter society for the better”? I’m not sure that television alone is so powerful that it can alter society.
We have to remember that the biggest alteration to South African society — the collapse of apartheid — happened despite the best efforts of television. So although I believe that television can play a positive role and contribute to change, any claim about it bringing about “an alteration to society” lacks humility.
Surely TV can have a negative impact on viewers, too? Are you ever concerned that the signals being put out to the society through Ya Mampela may have a damaging effect on the youth? There has been talk of certain programmes like Yizo Yizo glorifying violence and gangsterism.
I ask why, when talking about SABC1 viewers — mostly young, black people — we assume that they’re stupid and will copy what they see. After all, no South African has expressed any concern that middle-class white women are in danger of gratuitously fucking firemen after watching Sex and the City. But, of course, we are concerned about our role in society.
Anyone who works in television carries a huge responsibility and at SABC1 we don’t take our responsibility and our power for granted. Television, however, is not just about cultural and social discourse — it’s a practical way of getting content out 365 days a year.
And as with any practical endeavour, some compromises, trade-offs and mistakes are made that can be harmful. But I don’t know of anyone in television — or in journalism or art — who actively spends energy “glorifying violence and gangsterism”.
On the contrary, almost everyone I know in television in South Africa is fired by a great sense of mission to build a better society. I am less concerned about the so-called gullibility of my viewers than I am about the huge challenges we face in delivering great television. My viewers are incredibly media-savvy, intelligent people. Television cannot guarantee positive social change any more than a university can guarantee never to train the next Wouter Basson.
How is it that, even with the success of Ya Mampela, there is a perception that it is not a money-making machine? Is it true that other channels are still more profitable that yours?
SABC1 has to simultaneously deliver a public service while earning all our revenue from selling airtime commercially. Advertising is our only revenue stream at present. Our substantial obligation for local content drives very high costs. We commission the most local drama, the most local documentaries, the most local children’s programmes, the most local culture and music programmes, and we are the biggest investor in local soccer. The news and sport alone account for about 50% of our costs. SABC1 has the largest share of audiences, but its revenue share is not proportional to this — which is what most of the public discourse has been about. But it is important to note that SABC1 earns the biggest share of the revenue available. M-Net is more profitable but has fewer obligations, offers far less local content and, therefore, has less costs. However, we’re on track to break even, which is quite an achievement.
What has the documentary series Project 10: Real Stories from a Free South Africa articulated about society at large in the 10th year of democracy?
When we created Project 10 — a series of documentaries to celebrate our 10th anniversary of freedom — we wanted not simply to create very watchable, personal South African stories but to help develop “new voices” in television. Documentaries are notorious for being boring mostly because the genre in South Africa has been closed to the full range of storytelling language available. We wanted to make a series about our country as life happens … so we created an opportunity for a new generation of documentary makers.
There was no content agenda — no pressure to make historical pieces. So I think we had nothing to articulate collectively, except to say “we are finally free to tell our personal stories”.
We provided extensive support and created a safe environment for the filmmakers to be truly free (freedom is not that easy). I think everyone leaves the project learning an important lesson that only a free South Africa could teach us: every individual has a unique personal voice, which can be heard in a free society. My personal voice will make me a successful storyteller.
The international reception to the project has been phenomenal. The filmmakers have been to A-list film festivals — Sundance, Berlin, Cannes — as well as a host of others. The project has been acclaimed because festivals can see the value of what a unique voice offers.
They can now see South Africa beyond the headlines. The biggest achievement to date has been the fact that we have launched the careers of 15 local directors and 13 local producers internationally. In the documentary genre, we’re now firmly on the world map.
Did the launch of Project 10 on the Nelson Mandela Bridge justify such enormous expenditure?
Relative to the scale of investment in the entire project over two years, yes.
The launch on the Nelson Mandela Bridge was not only justified but successful. We also saw this as an investment in downtown Jo’burg.
Given the nature of the project, we were looking for a venue with political significance and meaning. So we looked at the Old Fort prison, Robben Island and the bridge.
A drama producer said to me that this was the first time documentaries and documentary filmmakers have been treated with the prestige that the rest of television usually gets.
How does Ya Mampela interface with other departments of the SABC? There is talk of a content hub established to overlook proposal submissions. Does this mean that you have less autonomy now than you may have had previously?
Yes, the SABC is establishing a content hub, but this does not reduce the autonomy of the channel.
The hub will acquire content according to the needs of the channel and its audiences — nothing will be imposed on it.
This is not a new way of working. Part of the SABC already works with centralised content procurement.