Mandla KaNozulu with the Muvhango cast.
Cancelled! Renewed! What's going on with Muvhango?
Lots of umgosi, that's what.
It all started exactly a week ago when Word of Mouth Pictures, producers of Muvhango and Imbewu, held a 29th anniversary luncheon for the production house in Joziburg.
The star of the day: Mandla KaNozulu, an Arts, Culture and Heritage practitioner who's been appointed as CEO of Word of Mouth.
He was in the thick of things with the Muvhango cast and next thing headlines!
Sunday World's deep throats were reported as saying that Muvhango could be "frozen".
According to the paper, the cast and crew have been told they have one more season to improve the show's situation or that's it. This happened after the lunch apparently.
SABC's acting spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo has subsequently come out to say that Muvhango hasn't been cancelled but renewed for another season.
TVSA asked Mmoni to confirm this and this is her reply to us:
Mmoni: "The SABC disputes the allegation that Muvhango has been canned. All SABC programmes are subjected to evaluation based on a number of factors including audience ratings, associated costs and relevance to the market.
To this effect, the SABC is pleased to have signed a new contract for Muvhango for season 22. Our viewers can look forward to watching their favorite programme on SABC 2".
This means that Muvhango will definitely be on air for another year.
Season 22 premieres in January 2021 and will run until 2022,
if the SABC pays on time that is. You know how broke they can be when it comes to their EFTs.
2022 and then what?
This is the question. It seems highly likely to us that this
is the make or break season, because when you think about it, it is.
Muvhango's still the No.1 show on SABC2 but its ratings have become lacklustre, hovering between 4 and 5-million viewers per episode this year when it always used to get well over 5 - and 6-million! - in previous years.
It gained a slight boost when the
ratings boom hit during Levels 5 and 4 but nothing like the huge increase of other shows that boomed and in
September 2020 viewership slumped to under 4-million.
More importantly, there's a lurking sense that the show has lost its way and that viewers aren't excited about it like they used to be.
These are the latest replies in TVSA's Muvhango section:
We're convinced that this is why Mandla's been brought in. To save it, rescue it and to find a new way forward because he was huggy-huggy with the Muvhango cast at the luncheon so he's clearly focused on them.
Who is he?
The aspect that interests us most about him is that he's a creator of the first original South African board game.
He's created a few of them e.g. a game-and-book combo called Taswika Afrika. It uses African countries to introduce players to African cities, languages, currencies etc. and comes with a companion book.
Another is titled Unozulu and it's also a book-and-game combo, based on Zulu surnames.
Here's a link to two profiles about him:
Mandla KaNozulu (scroll down)
About KaNozulu
The reason his board games grab the attention of TV lovers like us is that they indicate a unique point of view on culture and its interpretation, which is what Muvhango needs.
Also, the fact that he managed to take them from concept to creation suggests he's entrepreneurial and can make things happen, which Muvhango needs too.
Even though SABC2 isn't the SABC's commercial channel, the show needs to make money because every show does.
It costs a lot to keep a daily show in production so the money spent on it has to be worth it.
This is what Mandla has to say about his mission from a statement we received from Word of Mouth after the lunch:
Mandla: "My biggest vision is to future-proof the company by creating more stars and unleashing new talent. I very much look forward to the challenge ahead.
We will be opening behind-the-scenes access to different media outlets. Our other vision is to support women in film and production to strengthen their skills.
We will continue building the craft from the grassroots level and unleash new talent as we go on. We believe in opening up the industry."
What will happen with Muvhango in a year from now?
And suddenly we have a soapie within a soapie.
What do
you want from Muvhango?