The most watched soapie will be off air for the first this evening to be replaced by the Polokwane based drama Skeem Sam after over two decades of programming
The show abruptly came to an end on wednesday night when the public broadcaster and MMSV Productions ran out of available episodes, leaving viewers dangling with no resolutions, conclusions or finality for any of the characters or stories in Generations.
Generations was one of the most watched soapies in the country, rating over 7-million viewers per episode. It will indeed be remembered.
Following the new found democracy in 1994, the national broadcaster SABC decided to have a show that will portray the togetherness that is the new South Africa.
Portraying black people being successful and holding high positions and owning companies like David Phethoe (played Paul Moroka) who owned New Horizons which was the biggest black owned company at the time.
For this, and things like a white woman Rina Nienaber[Baba Swanepoel on the soapie] who played a motherly role to her black tenants who were occupying her commune. She always wore an apron and cleaned the house, which were usually things that a black woman would do.
This made Generations gain a lot of popularity amongst black South Africans whom to this day, still refer to actors by the names they used on the soapie, like Sello Maake Ka-Ncube who is to this day still known as Archie Moroka.
There was also Sophie Ndaba who will always be known as Queen Moroka.
Archie Moroka took over New Horizons from his father only to handover the company to his sister Connie Ferguson [Karabo Moroka] who made a name for herself as a model.
We were then introduced to Rapulane Seiphemo who played Tau Mogale. A businessman that took in Mike Mvelase [Khaphela Ncgobo] and Winnie Modise [Khethiwe Buthelezi] into his house as servants and ended up adding them to his will.
There were a lot of other actors that have since left the soapie including the like of Fana Mokoena [Dr Mandla Sithole], Sonia Sedibe [Ntombi Dlomo] and many more.
We then had Menzi Ngubane who played Sibusiso Dlomo before the show played its last episode yesterday.
Dlomo was a feared man who goes by an underground name of Ngamla who is a very successful business but had a few shady dealings on the side.
For many years, over 7 million South Africans had a date with SABC 1 at 8 o’clock from Monday to Friday and a very few missed it.
Tonight will be first time in years when the show will be off-air, replaced by the Polokwane based drama Skeem Sam.