Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA and AfriForum have raised concern about the sudden halt of the Afrikaans news bulletin on SABC2 without warning.
The Afrikaans news bulletin did not air on Saturday night as usual.
DA spokesperson Willie Aucamp described the move as “troubling”.
“The DA demands the SABC provides immediate clarification on why this essential service has been halted,” Aucamp said. “It is crucial that we understand whether this is a permanent change, a once-off incident or something else entirely.”
He said the party would write to the channel to request answers and the urgent restoration of the Afrikaans news bulletin to ensure all South Africans receive reliable news regardless of language preference.
“For many South Africans, the Nuus on SABC2, which has a devoted audience of more than 300,000, has been an essential source of news and information. All these viewers must pay for their TV licences, and it is completely unacceptable that the SABC would show such indifference to such a large segment of the population.
“As the public broadcaster the SABC has a duty to serve all language communities. The DA will hold the SABC accountable and will not tolerate such a lack of transparency in our public broadcaster.”
AfriForum has written a letter to the chairperson, CEO and management of the SABC seeking an explanation.
“No explanation has been offered for this failure to broadcast it yet and viewers are upset about the disregard for the Afrikaans audience’s access to news,” said AfriForum’s head of cultural affairs Alana Bailey.
“Access to vital information in one of the official languages of the country is the most important reason for the SABC’s existence. Furthermore, the institution has constantly been struggling with budget shortfalls in recent years, and it is therefore incomprehensible that Afrikaans news, which according to our information is a key source of advertising revenue, is subject to fluctuations and omissions of this nature without explanation,”
She said the lobby group previously complained about the relocation of Afrikaans news bulletins and their replacement with sports and other events.
Bailey argued that Afrikaans consumers are too financially strong and loyal to be isolated.
“About a third of the market is Afrikaans. This makes it even more incomprehensible that the SABC is choosing to alienate the market. It is choosing to kill a proverbial goose that is laying golden eggs. We are extremely concerned about the role played by the public broadcaster. Not only Afrikaans speakers but also speakers of other, smaller language groups in the country have long been dissatisfied with news bulletins that are broadcast at inconvenient times.”
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