I got the to write this article after watching three television shows which I hadn't watched before. After watching the first show, my first reaction was one of shock, after watching the second show, which was a children's show, I got the impression that I might have been wrong after all. After watching the third show, I was outraged. I have to admit that most of my love for the telly is very low and highly conditional. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, I found myself with nothing much to do and I watched three television shows which then prompted me to write this article.

Let me start with the first two shows which I think are related to some extent. First, I watched a SABC1 drama called Tshisa. The drama was aired at 8.30pm. I started watching the drama midway. What disturbed me most was the drama's obsession with drugs. Throughout the show the drama was peppered with scenes of people taking drugs and engaging in what might be collectively termed socially unacceptable The following day, which is today, I watched another drama, same station and same time slot (this was just a coincidence). This time the drama was called A Place Called Home. Ive to admit that I was a bit misled by the name because I was expecting a laid back show, maybe a mild comedy. Rather, it turned out to be quite a violent drama with guns appearing in almost all the instances and in more than one instance a gun was fired and there were several times of people pointing guns at other people. The drama had also strong overtones of gangsterism.

My first problem with the first two shows is that generally the backdrop is that of township life which most South African youths can easily identify with. Again, the actors are people who are just like the guy next door. With the seriousness of the crime problem in South Africa, I found this to be a a bit irresponsible on the part of the national broadcaster. Starting with the first drama, Tshisa, several independent studies, not only in South Africa have shown a strong correlation between drug intake and crime. Id like to bet that for most part the drug inhaling and gun totting will appeal much to the youths rather than repulsing them. For a country where gangsters are idolized and revered in the townships rather than being demonised, the broadcaster could have not have picked worse shows to flight on television. There is no doubt the two SABC 1 shows are very popular, judging from what I heard when I asked for comments from some of the youths whom I discussed with. Unfortunately, it appeared from the discussions that the popularity had nothing to do with the plot or the popularity of the actors but rather the bad guys in the two dramas went about throwing everyone around and getting their way.

My second problem is that of the insensitivity of the SABC 1. Having realised the potential of the shows, the broadcaster went on to give them prime slots. The fact that they are primarily acted in the vernacular obviously appealed to SABC and presented the broadcaster with the prefect cash cow. Not only are these two drama series aired on prime slots, but the two shows come immediately after Generations, a hugely popular drama series. Chances are the huge followers of Generations will go on and watch the same two shows. Obviously, the scriptwriters and directors should get the credit for showing as it is in South Africa, warts and all. But problem is that this is the kind of stories that will not in one bit help South Africa to fight the crime problem. Already, there is enough violence and crime on the streets of South Africa and glorifying in on national television, worse still a channel with a huge audience like SABC 1 will not augur well for South Africa at large. I have come to learn that the various drama series aired at 8.30pm from Monday to Thursday are known as the 'the stories of Mzansi' which basically mean, local stories. Admittedly, they are a mirror into society, a society that needs healing and transformation and these drama series (at least the ones I watched) do not help towards that cause.

Maybe I am being a bit harsh on the broadcaster. Maybe the scriptwriters and directors just were commissioned to produce a thriller. Admittedly, crime and espionage dramas and films are popular the world over, with South Africa being no exception. However in my layman and unsophisticated opinion, maybe the series should have been developed around the theme that the bad guys end up in unfortunate circumstances, like prison or a horrible death. While, this might not necessarily change the perception towards crime of an average South African youth, this can be said to be the right direction. Seeing the same gangsters gumshoeing on the screens every week, immune to law and justice will poison the minds of the youths. Maybe at this point I should add that I am not implying that the average South African youths are vacuum headed and wait for television to feel their minds with images and ideas of crime and are incapable of having mindsets of their own. Rather, my argument is that in the case of South Africa, television is a powerful medium and it has the capacity to change, for worse, the mindsets of the youth. Worse still, in Zimbabwe, many people rely on SABC via satellite dishes for news and a variety of TV shows to make up for the inadequacy of the ZTV. Chances are that, without knowing it, South Africa is now exporting a not so attractive phenomenon.

My last worry comes with the implication of the SABC airing the Mzansi stories on SABC 1. Over time I have noticed that this is the channel that caters for the ordinary black South Africans and uses the main vernacular languages more than its sister channels which are SABC 2 & 3. Noticing that SABC 2 caters mostly for the Afrikaans and Indian communities and SABC f3 for the English community, airing violent drama series, presented in the main vernacular, shows an whom the public broadcaster fingers as the main culprits of the crime problem in South Africa. I am not privy to crime statistics or to the solution of the paradox of poor South Africans in townships affording expensive narcotics drugs but I am not comfortable with the broadcaster (unconsciously?) blaming the black community as being responsible for the majority of crime and violence. When you juxtapose the stories of Mzansi with another drama, Isidingo, on SABC 3, you get the impression that the public broadcaster has concluded that the majority of black South Africans are responsible for the violent petty crime while the whites are responsible for the sophisticated crimes. Anyway, at this point the differences hardly matters because as someone once said, even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat. Therefore crime issues, in a troubled country like South Africa should be handled delicately, irrespective of whether its violent and crude or contrived and sophisticated

Maybe I have written this blog too fast. Maybe all the bag guys in stories of Mzansi will either get locked up or die horribly or repent before the drama series ends. Maybe I took a fine crime drama series and went on to make a mountain out of a molehill. Maybe, the learned and experienced powers be at SABC have a vision that knows know capacity and they see way beyond my misplaced paranoia. Maybe the scriptwriters and directors of the stories of Mzansi took a whole lot of time to produce the drama series and saw them fit to air them, yet I, who knows very little about the media industry, accuses them after watching only two episodes. It is times like these when I come to the conclusion that either I am mad OR the SABC is mad – with the current situation at least one of us must be of doubtful sanity.

With the highest crime rate in the whole world, and with one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS, it is time the public broadcaster takes a moral responsibility and play its part. Maybe its time SABC give preference to the ordinary South Africans over its commercial and profit-oriented inclination. Maybe the first step should be reversing the current scenario where there are more alcohol adverts on its channel than those of HIV/AIDS.

Tendai Chiguware