A local digital content company, Sollywood, will provide comprehensive live online coverage of the events at the 53rd ANC National Elective Conference, in Mangaung, from 16 to 20 December.
Mangaung Online will provide a paid-for service that will include a five-hour daily live stream with coverage of the events, users will also receive e-mails with all public documents from the conference and real-time SMS updates about the major announcements.
The live, unedited stream will be anchored by local celebrity Siyabonga Thwala, who will interview the ANC delegates, leadership and alliance leaders. Thwala says: "Decisions taken at Mangaung affect all of us and we need to improve the political debate in our country by making sure that the community has detailed information on the decisions taken."
Sollywood CEO Linda Khumalo (who is also the former CEO of both Nokia Siemens and Alcatel Lucent in SA) says Mangaung Online will introduce a "new paradigm shift" in the way information is delivered to the public for such events. Khumalo adds that some community broadcasters have partnered with Sollywood to deliver the service.
"The media normally does not give the detailed report on the decisions taken at such events, but just the highlights. This has led to a very shallow public debate on the issues. By giving the public the detailed report, the discussions will improve in quality," says Khumalo.
The service will cost R120 for access to coverage throughout the conference or R35 per day. Khumalo believes Manguang Online can tap into the major public interest in the conference. "So far we have had a huge interest, within two hours [on Tuesday] alone we had 250 people confirming via Facebook that they will be buying the service."
Khumalo adds: "Remember that the ANC alone has a million members and only 4 500 of them are attending the conference with the remaining staying at home waiting for outcomes.
"People are already paying for information services as they buy newspapers and subscribe to services such as DStv. This project will introduce a new business model of providing direct and detailed information services to the public," says Khumalo, adding that there is a "drought" of such information services in SA.
Working with Sollywood on the project are Phuthuma Technologies, Nalumi Consulting, VSites Digital Agency and Johannesburg production company The Curve Behind.
The Mangaung Online site is currently live and open for registrations.