Month: September 2014

Generations off air from October 1

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NOTE: Article first appeared in The Citizen newspaper on September 20, 2014. 

The contingency plan the SABC had in place to deal with the lack of new Generations episodes will come into full effect on October 1 – when the show is pulled off the air.

Kaizer Kganyago, SABC spokesperson, confirmed last night the show would no longer be on air as of next month.

The cast of Generations. Image courtesy of Facebook.com/GenerationsTVShow
The cast of Generations. Image courtesy of Facebook.com/GenerationsTVShow

“There are no new episodes … Generations will be off air until December,” he revealed.

Filming of the popular soap stopped on August 11 when 16 principal actors started withholding their services. The 16 demanded higher salaries and a cut of R500 million in royalties.

Kganyago said SABC1 would juggle their scheduling to move SePedi drama Skeem Saam from its 6.30pm timeslot to the coveted 8pm slotGenerations used to occupy.

Earlier this week, Generations producer and creator Mfundi Vundla said he was rewriting the entire show, presumably without the 16 actors, who were axed after being given an ultimatum to return to work or be fired a week after their strike action started.

The actors seem oblivious to the changes being made. The Generations Actors Guild announced yesterday they would be taking their matter to the CCMA.

Generations fight has producer in a lather

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NOTE: This article first appeared in The Citizen newspaper on September 18, 2014. 

The creator and producer of hit soap Generations, Mfundi Vundla, is standing his ground and is rewriting the entire show after he fired 16 principal actors who were on strike.

Following their dismissals by Vundla’s company, MMSV Productions, almost a month ago, he reportedly left the country to rethink the direction of the show now that his entire cast was gone.

Earlier, he said he took the strike very personally and felt “betrayed” by their accusations of exploitation.

FILE PICTURE: Generations executive producer Mfundi Vundla addresses the media at the SABC offices in Auckland Park, 22 August 2014, following the termination of services of 16 actors from the popular soapie. Picture: Refilwe Modise
FILE PICTURE: Generations executive producer Mfundi Vundla addresses the media at the SABC offices in Auckland Park, 22 August 2014, following the termination of services of 16 actors from the popular soapie. Picture: Refilwe Modise

Yesterday, when The Citizen contacted Vundla, who is back in the country, he said he was in a brainstorming session.

“I am busy rewriting the whole of Generations, I can’t talk to the media at the moment,” he said.

Viewers and fans of the soapie have been tuning in to watch prerecorded episodes for almost six weeks.

No filming has taken place since August 11, when the actors started “withholding their services” – meaning there may only be seven prerecorded episodes ready to air from today.

This is probably the reason Vundla is in a frenzied rush to pen the new direction of the show.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago could not confirm how many episodes were left, but said: “They haven’t been shooting, so at some point the episodes will be finished.”

He added that the SABC did have a backup plan for when that time came and this would be announced in due course.

In the event that the 16 actors were not reinstated, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) would march and picket in solidarity, the federation said. Patrick Craven, Cosatu national spokesperson, said they had requested a boycott of the show from Monday and would continue to put pressure on the SABC, producers, government and the public.

There has been no word on when auditions will be held to replace the fired actors or allocate new roles  for the “new” Generations. Cosatu general secretary

Zwelinzima Vavi threatened that any actors who auditioned would be publicly named and shamed.

Water supplies restored as reservoirs fill

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NOTE: Article first appeared on The Citizen website on September 16, 2014. 

Water supply has been sporadic or non-existent in parts of Johannesburg and the West Rand over the past two days.

Democratic Alliance ward councillor Amanda Forsythe received calls from residents reporting “ first  low water pressure and then others saying they had completely ran out of water”.

Forsythe contacted Johannesburg Water, who informed her that the Rand Water reservoirs had ran out of water due to an extensive power outage.

FILE PICTURE: A resident fills her bucket with water from a tap. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA
FILE PICTURE: A resident fills her bucket with water from a tap. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA

Johannesburg Water spokesperson, Justice Mohale said: “The interruption was caused by the power outage in the Eikenhof area, which resulted in Rand Water unable to pump water from its Eikenhof Pumping station to the Meredale Reservoir, which supplies Joburg Water.”

Affected areas included the south-western part of Johannesburg and northern suburbs including Emmarentia, Greenside, Melville and Parktown. Restoration of water supply began yesterday afternoon but because of the size of the reservoirs, it took a few hours. Forsythe said water was restored to most residents by 10pm last night, but that there were some glitches.

“Some people had water on for a while last night and then this morning had nothing, but I believe water has been fully restored now,” Forsythe said.

Considering the extent of the water interruption, Forsythe said: “Those reservoirs are huge. The power outage must have lasted a day or so. They even have back-up generators, but those also ran out of power because of the high demand for water.”

5 arrested for Gauteng mall robberies

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NOTE: Article first appeared on The Citizen website on Septemper 9, 2014. 

On Tuesday morning Gauteng police made their first arrests in connection to a recent spate of mall robberies in the province.

Five men aged between 24 and 44 years of age were nabbed in a police raid in Brixton and Doornfontien at 4am this morning, . The five are suspected to be involved in at least two mall robberies in the province.

Provincial commissioner of police, Lesetja Mothiba told a media briefing in Parktown that so far 11 mall robberies have rocked Gauteng.

On 22 August, a gang of robbers struck an iStore at Centurion Mall, escaping with over R1 million worth of goods. A week before a group of men robbed an iStore at Cresta shopping mall , taking an undisclosed number of cellphones and iPads. As they fled the scene they started shooting randomly, injuring an elderly man in the parking lot.

That same week a group of men robbed an iStore at Glen Shopping Mall in Glenvista, Johannesburg, shooting and injuring a security guard before they fled the scene.

FILE PIC. Members of the police walk outside the jewellery store that was robbed on 14 November 2013 in Menlyn Park shopping centre. Picture: Christine Vermooten
FILE PIC. Members of the police walk outside the jewellery store that was robbed on 14 November 2013 in Menlyn Park shopping centre. Picture: Christine Vermooten

A man was killed last week at Black Chain Shopping Centre in Soweto when five suspects stole a cash box.

On Monday evening, a cellphone store at the Glen shopping centre in Ormonde, Johannesburg, was robbed with the suspects fleeing with cellphones.

Increased Security

Mothiba said lax mall security made the robberies easier for criminals,  “some mall security is very relaxed. Some have CCTV camera’s that aren’t working or are of poor quality”.

Police are now offering a reward of R200 000 for people with information on those involved in mall robberies.

General Tebello Mosikili, deputy provincial commissioner for detective services. She revealed that police spend between R1 million and R1,5 million on rewards annually.

Police plan to work hand in hand with mall security,  management and private security companies in the coming weeks to access various malls’ security.

Mothiba said police have identified at least 12 malls that they say are “high risk”. There will be increased visibility at these malls but he did not want to scare people by identifying them.

Generations dispute far from over

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NOTE: Article first appeared on The Citizen website on September 3, 2014.

There is no end in sight to the ongoing Generations drama as the popular soapie enters the fourth week of no filming.

MMSV Productions owner and Generations producer, Mfundi Vundla threw a spanner in the negotiation process with the 16 fired actors when he reportedly jetted off to Mackinac Island in Michigan, the United States of America over the weekend.

Vundla reportedly said he was going away to think of the new direction the show would take, adamant that he would not be taking back the 16 who “betrayed” him.

Seemingly following in Vundla’s footsteps, actor Thato Molamu, who plays Nicholas Nomvete has also taken steps to change his situation. He has landed a hosting job on SABC 2 show, What’s Behind The Wall? 

Sophie Ndaba during a press conference held by the Generations stars that were fired recently at the Market Theatre in Newtown, 26 August 2014. Picture: Neil McCartney
Sophie Ndaba during a press conference held by the Generations stars that were fired recently at the Market Theatre in Newtown, 26 August 2014. Picture: Neil McCartney

He was reportedly on leave like a pregnant Katlego Danke when he got fired.

The last move made in this standoff between the actors, their production company and the SABC came last week Thursday. The actors sent a letter to the SABC requesting a time and date to meet again to possibly start negotiations.

The actors legal representative, Desmond Brown said some of the other fired actors had also started looking for “other gigs” while waiting to solve their dispute.

Winnie Modise, Sophie Ndaba and Nambita Mpumlwana did just that when they attended the Women in Sport awards evening hosted by the department of sports and recreation last week.

Ministerial spokesperson, Anda Qhama Bici said the three “were invited as guests, they weren’t making an appearance”.

Last week the fired actors received partial salaries because they have not been at work since August 11. They are demanding a cut of the show’s royalties and three year contracts.

At the moment pre-recorded episodes of Generations are still being aired, but there are only two to possibly four weeks’ worth of episodes left that are ready to air.