The SABC may have downplayed the omission of the Afrikaans news as an error, but AfriForum isn’t satisfied with the national broadcaster’s response.
This comes after the Afrikaans segment failed to air on both Saturday and Sunday, prompting concerns that the decision had been made to pull it permanently.
AfriForum wants answers from the SABC over future of Afrikaans news
AfriForum has issued a statement confirming that the SABC’s response to the matter was unsatisfying and committing to taking the matter further.
AfriForum confirms that it has written to the SABC to demand answers in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act in a bid to gain answers relating to the future of Afrikaans TV news broadcasts. The group’s Head of Cultural Affairs, Alana Bailey, insists that the SABC statement had failed to reassure viewers.
“If last week’s omission was a mere oversight, the SABC could have disclosed this fact publicly and in response to all enquiries a long time ago. Now it gives the impression that aftercare has been applied following the angry reaction of viewers and organisations such as AfriForum,” Bailey commented.
AfriForum is determined to gain access to the facts of the matter in the request to the SABC to provide insight into the success of Afrikaans news programmes.
“AfriForum wants to get to the bottom of this before deciding on further action. We are therefore asking in-depth questions in the PAIA request about matters such as viewership numbers before and after the August 2024 channel and time slot shifts, as well as advertising revenue that Afrikaans TV news bulletins generated then and are receiving now. We also want to know what steps are being taken to prevent future broadcasts from being ‘accidentally omitted’.” Bailey continued.
SABC denies permanently removing Afrikaans news
In a statement addressing the concerns of viewers after the Afrikaans news failed to air, the SABC insisted that the incident was simply an error.
“The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) wishes to address concerns arising from the non-broadcast of the Afrikaans television news bulletin this past weekend. We acknowledge that the bulletin did not air in its regular time slot on Saturday and Sunday, and we confirm that this was a scheduling error. This should not have happened.” SABC statement
The SABC insists that there is no intent to permanently remove the show, despite the concerns raised over the failure to broadcast.
“We want to assure the public and our stakeholders that there is no plan or decision to discontinue or deprioritise Afrikaans news. The Afrikaans television news bulletin continues to air as scheduled from Monday to Friday, and the weekend bulletin will also continue in its regular time slot going forward.” The SABC commented.
Do you agree that AfriForum has the right to demand statistics relating to Afrikaans programming in response to this incident?
Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1.
Subscribe to The South African website’s newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
