Two SABC veterans have joined Gqeberha-based TV channel Mpuma Kapa (formerly Bay TV).
The pair form part of the station’s management team in the news and sales departments.
A seasoned broadcaster with local and international experience, Siphiwo Magoda now heads the station’s news and current affairs department, while sales expert Ntsikelelo Tom takes over as head of sales.
Magoda has been in the industry for more than four decades, working in radio and television broadcasting.
His vast experience as a reporter on the ground and presenter in studio, Magoda said, would help him lead with practical understanding of the journalism craft.
Joining Mpuma Kapa TV was an opportunity for him to impart his knowledge to the next generation of journalists, he said.
“It’s also an opportunity for the station to carry the Eastern Cape story by highlighting all the province has to brag about.
“Our driving force is those things that we are proud of as the province, rather than trying to jostle for the top story that every big gun is running after,” Magoda said.
Magoda said he hoped to position the department as a voice and teller of the stories of the ordinary and forgotten people of the Eastern Cape.
This could be achieved by going back to basics and encouraging story-pitching meetings, he said.
“I strongly believe Mpuma Kapa TV can be a news station [that] goes down to the bottom where forgotten people that nobody thinks about are.
“Research shows that people are interested in what directly affects them, so Mpuma Kapa will be the station that carries those stories, including issues of tradition, leadership, sports and even the homeless,” he said.
Magoda’s radio career began in 1982 at Radio Transkei, where he learnt the value chain of broadcasting. He became a big part of the news department as a senior reporter, news reader and current affairs presenter.
Magoda also has international news experience, having worked for the BBC in London and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto.
He continues to broadcast Umxholo on Umhlobo Wenene FM as a freelancer.
“The board of the channel is committed to making the channel better and bigger, ensuring that our news and current affairs are well managed and continue to provide support and training to our new, young, talented journalists and reporters,” Mpuma Kapa head of marketing Sinazo Mtshengu said.
Tom, a former SABC provincial sales manager, also boasts years of experience in media and broadcasting sales.
He has worked as the sales manager of government at CNBC Africa and has two decades of management experience, affording him extensive understanding of the sales and marketing field.
He joins Mpuma Kapa TV to assist in growing the revenue of the channel, and contributing to the training and growth of its sales department.
Tom said he would use his experience in the industry to set up a well-functioning sales department to ensure revenue maximisation for the channel.
“Without revenue the channel might not get better.
“We need sustainable revenue streams to ensure the channel is able to achieve all it wants to achieve.
“The main goal to set up a proper sales structure that will cover the province and the whole of SA in terms of getting revenue from agencies in Johannesburg, Cape Town and various other places,” Tom said.
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