Viewer fury has engulfed M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel over the TV show Our Perfect Wedding. Shocked viewers have slammed the show calling it a "disgusting shame" for "romanticising rape culture".
The barrage of complaints comes as the M-Net channel aired the last two episodes – this past Sunday's one taking things even further than the previous Sunday - proudly glamourising a groom who told of how he met his wife when she was just 14 and preyed on young girls.
Mzansi Magic has now said it is pulling all repeats of the specific Our Perfect Weddingepisode that’s also made available on MultiChoice’s DStv Catch Up video-on-demand service and pushed to subscriber’s decoders.
Our Perfect Wedding showed the groom telling viewers how he sexed school children as a 28-year old taxi driver and how his now wife had to compete for his attention.
Our Perfect Wedding, produced by Connect TV owned by Basetsana Kumalo of SABC3's Top Billing fame, stoked the fires of viewers' discontent in the middle of the national 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse campaign.
At least once complaint has been formally laid with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) over Our Perfect Wedding and Absa abruptly pulled its sponsorship of the show on Monday.
"We have withdrawn our sponsorship of Our Perfect Wedding with immediate effect. We have informed Mzansi Magic," says Byron Kennedy, Absa's head of media.
In a statement the Change Drivers' Network and the Sexual Reproductive Justice Coalition of South Africa slams Mzansi Magic and Connect TV, saying; "considering the rate of sexual abuse in South Africa, it is disturbing to note how Our Perfect Wedding normalises this behaviour and turned it into a love story.
"Rape culture is so normalised and in a country like ours with the type of statistics around rape and gender based violence it is highly disturbing what we were shown on Mzansi Magic," says dr Tlaleng Mofokeng.
Mzansi Magic didn't respond to specific questions regarding Our Perfect Wedding in a media request from Channel24.
The channel did post a notice on its website saying it would “like to apologise for airing the segment that has upset our viewers".
The statement goes on to say that the channel takes the concerns of viewers seriously and that the M-Net provided channel to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform has “taken the decision not to broadcast the episode again".
Local TV show slammed for glamourising ‘rape culture as entertainment’
The barrage of complaints comes as the M-Net channel aired the last two episodes – this past Sunday's one taking things even further than the previous Sunday - proudly glamourising a groom who told of how he met his wife when she was just 14 and preyed on young girls.
Mzansi Magic has now said it is pulling all repeats of the specific Our Perfect Weddingepisode that’s also made available on MultiChoice’s DStv Catch Up video-on-demand service and pushed to subscriber’s decoders.
Our Perfect Wedding showed the groom telling viewers how he sexed school children as a 28-year old taxi driver and how his now wife had to compete for his attention.
Our Perfect Wedding, produced by Connect TV owned by Basetsana Kumalo of SABC3's Top Billing fame, stoked the fires of viewers' discontent in the middle of the national 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse campaign.
At least once complaint has been formally laid with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) over Our Perfect Wedding and Absa abruptly pulled its sponsorship of the show on Monday.
"We have withdrawn our sponsorship of Our Perfect Wedding with immediate effect. We have informed Mzansi Magic," says Byron Kennedy, Absa's head of media.
In a statement the Change Drivers' Network and the Sexual Reproductive Justice Coalition of South Africa slams Mzansi Magic and Connect TV, saying; "considering the rate of sexual abuse in South Africa, it is disturbing to note how Our Perfect Wedding normalises this behaviour and turned it into a love story.
"Rape culture is so normalised and in a country like ours with the type of statistics around rape and gender based violence it is highly disturbing what we were shown on Mzansi Magic," says dr Tlaleng Mofokeng.
Mzansi Magic didn't respond to specific questions regarding Our Perfect Wedding in a media request from Channel24.
The channel did post a notice on its website saying it would “like to apologise for airing the segment that has upset our viewers".
The statement goes on to say that the channel takes the concerns of viewers seriously and that the M-Net provided channel to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform has “taken the decision not to broadcast the episode again".
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