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Chapter 17 - Memories of, and Reflections on, Broadcasting in South Africa
- Muxe Nkondo
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- Book:
- Social Memory as a Force for Social and Economic Transformation
- Published by:
- University of South Africa
- Published online:
- 11 November 2021
- Print publication:
- 26 March 2021, pp 204-211
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- Chapter
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Summary
When the television set finally arrived in Toppi Spring's home in 1976, it elicited several emotions infused with pride, excitement, impatience and anticipation. Nothing had prepared me personally for the stoic news bulletin centred around an incomprehensible decree that, in black schools, maths and science, amongst others, would be taught in Afrikaans. I will never forget how, at that confusing moment, our old man's fingers trembled uncontrollably as he switched off the box and his once welcoming eyes darkened with pain—and later when the sirens had died, my mother smuggled us out, only to be humiliated by multiple road blocks and what seemed like hours of interrogation about nebulous things such as the ownership of the car and the books on our back seat.
As was the case in many other homes, Toppi Spring's family impatiently awaited the arrival of the colourful screen. The introduction of television in South Africa had been delayed because of an excessive preoccupation with notions of “extreme cultural protectionism” (Nixon, 1992). The cabinet, as it was constituted then, reasoned that in the absence of a national service provider, there was no means of countering international and culturally unprogressive transmissions beamed into South Africa via new satellite technologies. Ironically, the television they feared would later become a useful coercive instrument for advancing the dominance of the National Party (NP) and entrenching its political interests, albeit increasingly to its own detriment. O’Meara (1996, pp. 170–173) describes how the economy then was negatively affected by the “racially determined nature of consumer demand” and the failure to secure “products on the possibilities of economies of scale”.
Several other self-made crises were generated by the irrational use of live ammunition on thousands protesting against the imposition of Afrikaans-medium lessons, the senseless murder of Steve Biko in detention, and the inexplicable banning of 17 institutions—all occurring against the backdrop of a peaking recession. Paradoxically, the hegemony entrusted to protect Afrikaans culture became primary to its decline, as the Afrikaans language became synonymous with the detested Bantu Education, oppression and exclusion.
Despite unprecedented resistance to Afrikaans, what followed five years later after my first experience of television, was the entrenchment of the Bantustan policy which manifested itself in the physical separation of broadcasting content along racial lines.
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