Amateur hour at Gupta TV

A range of technical glitches and TV 101 errors have turned South Africa's latest 24-hour news channel into the talk of the town - for all the wrong reasons.

A string of beauties hired as news readers and presenters for the African News Network (ANN7) have taken huge flak on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and radio for, among other gaffes, stuttering, squinting into the teleprompter and pausing in mid-sentence.

Model turned news anchor Afrika Gola presented the final news bulletin of Thursday evening, Night Cap. By Saturday a clip of her error-riddled performance had registered more than 20000 views on YouTube.

The East London-born beauty drew loads of online comments for her use of the word "whippin". Viewers eventually figured out she had meant to say "weapon". She later tweeted that the day had been "an emotional roller coaster".

Another young presenter also took a hammering after reading a news item involving Agang leader Mamphela Ramphele, in which she called the party something that sounded like "A-gang".

There has been no public support forthcoming from the owners of the channel, who include the powerful Gupta family and President Jacob Zuma's son Duduzane.

Prime-time anchor Chantal Rutter Dros, clearly aware of the drama, posted the following on Twitter: "Yes, they are very nervous given all the flak they've been getting.

"Thank you for understanding that this is a start-up."

ANN7 launched with a gala event at the Sandton Convention Centre on Wednesday night at which guests were treated to a three-course spread.

But several hours into the evening, those in the know were squirming in their seats as the Twittersphere started highlighting the blunders in the channel's studios in Midrand.

The launch broadcast kicked off after a round of speeches from the editor-in-chief of the news channel, Moegsien Williams, and Minister of Communications Yunus Carrim.

The Sunday Times was unable to obtain comment from the channel's management about the teething problems.

However, according to a statement from the channel's website, it has 76 journalists with experience working in the newsrooms of stations such as Sky and Al Jazeera. They promise to cover politics, sports, business and entertainment.

Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon is the presenter of Vuka Afrika, the channel's morning show, and kwaito singer Arthur Mafokate is doing a weekly sports show.

One insider told the Sunday Times that ANN7 had hired models as news anchors because "they believe that men will enjoy watching the news when they see pretty girls".

"They have also hired an international team to train presenters on the highly technical equipment, which involves the news anchors operating the Autocue [teleprompter] machine themselves - something that is new and advanced in this country," the insider said.

Other new TV faces include modelling agency boss Nzinga Qunta and model Taryn du Plooy.

Some TV production experts have urged the public to go easy on the presenters and the new channel, but some celebrities and media commentators have been brutally frank in their comments.

Radio and television personality Mark Pilgrim wrote: "Having done a lot of live TV myself, I'm quite forgiving when there's blunders, but this is so bad."

One television media practitioner said it appeared that the station had gone live long before its staff were ready.

"It is clear that they are all rather ill-prepared and that, coupled with technical issues, would make for a very bumpy start."

Most news channels would launch after months of preparation, which would include stocking up on timeless archive material or "evergreens", the media practitioner said.

This was usually done to avoid repeating the same promotional material or news content in the absence of sufficient advertising during the early days.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle is the ultramodern Autocue teleprompter, which requires presenters to scroll through their scripts themselves instead of having a technician operate it for them.

Mafokate yesterday posted on Twitter: "LOL, on my show I don't use Autocue, I'm sorry, I won't give you the fun you are looking for."