MUVHANGO THE JOURNEY (1997 – 2024)

Sometime in 1996 I submitted a drama concept called MASHUDU to the SABC. Thaninga Shope – Msimang, then head of SABC 2 got extremely excited. I wasn’t even sure if she had read the drama proposal. I was surprised. I later was to learn that the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority, now known as ICASA) had put the broadcaster under pressure demanding that they accommodate marginalized languages. I had hit a jackpot because my proposal was for a TshiVenda drama. It was then called; MASHUDU, after the main character. Thaninga immediately called her drama commissioning editors and instructed them to work with me and make sure that the drama is ready for broadcast soonest.

It was on Monday, April 07, 1997 at 7.30pm that the first episode of MUVHANGO went on air on SABC 2 without much fanfare. The buzz that came from that first episode forced those who had missed the first episode to tune in the next Monday to see what the fuss and the buzz was all about. . Word in the streets was that a Mosotho woman was fighting her husband’s Venda family for the right to bury her husband. Mara Louw played the character of Catherine, who was married to Mashudu, who dies in the first five minutes of the first episode of the drama. (Because of Mashudu dying so soon in the first episode, I had to change the name of the drama to Muvhango, - conflict). By the time all the 13episodes had played South Africa was glued to the television screens and there had been a massive surge of viewership from across the country from people who were hungry for content that portrayed them and their stories. People said that this was the first time that they saw themselves on TV the way they had wanted to be portrayed.