Soapies not killed by fire, says SABC

Johannesburg - A fire which broke out at the SA Broadcasting Corporation's studios would not interrupt popular soap operas, the public broadcaster said on Thursday.

Acting chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng said interim measures were in place to ensure production of Generations, Muvhango and Isidingo would continue.

"We have five studios that are used to produce drama and only one of them has burned down," he said in a statement.

The soap operas were also recorded a few months before they were aired on television.

Confident

"This means production will continue and the public need not panic thinking the production of their favourite soapies might be affected."

He said it would take a few months for operations to return to normal but the SABC was confident it could maintain full production.

"The estimated value of the damages is around millions of rands - our investigating team will be able to determine the exact value once they finalise their investigations."

No one was injured in the fire.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known and an investigation into this was underway, Motsoeneng said.

Earlier, Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Niel Rooi said the fire broke out around 20:00 on Wednesday.

Motsoeneng told Morning Live: "As the SABC we are very shocked. As you know financially we are not sound.

"This is something that we don't know how to handle but we will get there."