Election debate 2014 at Pella, Northern Cape - report from the technical producer

By Rena Maghundu
RBF Technical Producer

Pella is a pristine town in the Northern Cape. The X-K FM current affairs team and RBF recorded an outside broadcast (OB) of a pre-election debate with the community of Pella to make their voices heard.

The team were surprised by the beauty of the nature as they turned into the gravel road leading to the town. Pella is situated 30 kilometres outside of Poffader. From Kimberley they had to drive for a day to get to Pella, passing through Upington as well.

"Pella is an oasis in Namakwa (Bushmanland) in the Northern Cape province of South Africa earlier known as Cammas Fonteyn, the spring was used by a nearby stronghold of the San people. In 1776 a South African Dutch farmer called Coenraad Feijt settled there and lived in harmony with the San despite their fondness for raiding the cattle of the Dutch farmers in the Hantam. A nearby farm called Aggeneys later became the site of the modern mining town of that name." - Wkipedia

The Cathedral in Pella

Pella

The team went in search of a river in the area as as the area is very dry, but could only found the place where the river dried up.

A drive in the surrounding area of Pella

They were amazed to see the high mountains with small trees. The beauty of the area made an impact on them.

The Team

Left Ulrich Hendriks; middle Rena Maghundu and right Tressel Katembo

Back Magdalena Juharra 

Picture by Fresto Mangumbu

The team for the outside broadcast consisted of five people, four from news and one from RBF.


Pella Pre-election Debate

Community Hall in Pella

The big day of the broadcast arrived, with political parties in attendance to face the community of Pella. The beautiful decorated hall added to the rural charm of the environment, as well as gave the team motivation to do their job.
Tressel Katembo and Fresto Mangumbu handled the proceedings in the hall.

Magdalena Juharra was the producer of the day, ensuring the success of the broadcast. Rena Maghundu, the only technical producer in the team, took the pictures.

Magdalena Juharra and Rena Maghundu during the broadcast (on far right)

Ulrich Hendriks handled the floor microphone and made sure they heard what the political parties were saying. He gets a special mention because it is very difficult to handle the floor microphone when the people got angry when their hands were raised for too long.

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Rena Maghundu thanks RBF and News Management for giving her the opportunity to attend the OB and to visit Pella. She also thanks her team members for their support during this time.


Blog post and pictures by Rena Maghundu.