Saftas not so 'live' after all
2007-10-29 09:40
Johannesburg - A "live broadcast" that was not quite live and that was constantly spoilt by sound and other technical problems awaited viewers on Saturday night when the second annual Safta awards were broadcast by SABC2.
The South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) went on air at 20:00 with the words "Live From the Red Carpet" displayed in the corner of the SABC2 screen.
But the ceremony had already been on the go for an hour at that stage.
Sound problems also made it impossible for viewers to hear what the winners were saying, and at one stage the producers actually did start to broadcast live after a commercial break.
The result was that only the tail-end of Mariki Pretorius's speech was heard, after she'd won the Safta award for the best television movie (Heartlines), which in the delayed transmission was supposed to come up an hour later.
No sound
When the technical team realised their mistake they stopped the transmission, played music and then returned to where they were supposed to continue, the action of more than an hour earlier.
Next there was no sound when the chairperson of the Safta committee Eddie Mbalo appeared on stage for his speech.
He returned to the stage later to re-do the speech, this time with sound.
Ed Worster, SABC2 programme manager said the channel was still attempting to find out what went wrong, because everything went off smoothly in the Gallagher Estate hall from where the event was televised.
He added that the delayed live transmission was due to the (real) live transmission of the Currie Cup final earlier that evening.
Criticism
The Saftas awards, which had already evoked criticism in the media because there were virtually no nominations other than from SABC1, 2 and 3, underlined this critique when only four of the more than 30 television awards went to channels other than the public broadcaster.
Comedian Alan Committie won the prize for the best supporting actor for his portrayal of Johan van der Watt, in the M-Net comedy Laugh out Loud, and the programme itself won the award for the best comedy.
SuperSport's Shosholoza, was chosen as the best sport programme, and Slyabonga Twala, who portrays Vusi Zwane in Scandal won the prize for the best soapy actor.
On the movie front Leon Schuster's comedy Mama Jack won two prizes: the prize for best actor (won by Leon Schuster himself) and the award for the best supporting actress in a movie, palmed by Mary-Ann Barlow for her portrayal of Angela in the movie.
'My World Cup's overflowing'
Schuster was not at the ceremony because he was in Bloemfontein for the Currie Cup final, to support his team, the Cheetahs.
He said from Bloemfontein that the win was not a dream, but a nightmare for his critics.
"This is their biggest nightmare. Thank you very much.
"My World Cup's overflowing, my Currie cup's overflowing and if Mama Jack were here now her bra-cups would also be overflowing!"