![]() ![]() In 1971, the SABC was finally allowed to introduce a television service. ![]() In addition, it would be inconceivable that the Publications Control Board would be able to censor each video cassette that came into the country when they became available in mass quantities. The commission also argued that people in South Africa would eventually be able to receive foreign television broadcasts via satellite, thereby bypassing government censorship, and that this should be pre-empted through the introduction of a domestic service. A majority of its members, of whom nine were Broederbond members, recommended that a television service be introduced, provided that "effective control" was exercised "to the advantage of our nation and country". In 1971, it appointed a "Commission of Inquiry into Matters Relating to Television", headed by Piet Meyer, chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond, and later of the SABC. In 1968, the government's opposition to the introduction of television began to soften after Hertzog was removed as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs by Prime Minister John Vorster. While it only ran for eighteen months, the radio series proved highly popular. In the absence of television in South Africa, a radio version of the British television series The Avengers was produced by Sonovision for SABC's commercial network, Springbok Radio, in 1972. Ĭommenting on Rhodesia's experience with television, Ivor Benson, who served as Director of the Government Information Department under Ian Smith, remarked that the South African government "had been wise to stand firm against a great deal of well-organised pressure and to insist on waiting until some means might be found of separating television from some of the evils which have attended it in other countries". Known as Rhodesia Television (RTV), its major shareholders were South African companies, including the Argus Group of newspapers through its subsidiary, the Rhodesian Printing and Publishing Company, and Davenport and Meyer, the latter of which operated LM Radio, based in Mozambique, then under Portuguese rule. In addition, neighbouring Southern Rhodesia had introduced its own television service in 1960, the first country in Africa south of the equator to do so. The opposition United Party pointed out that even less economically advanced countries in Africa had already introduced television. When Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969, South Africa was one of the few countries unable to watch the event live, prompting one newspaper to remark, "The moon film has proved to be the last straw… The situation is becoming a source of embarrassment for the country." In response to public demand, the government arranged limited viewings of the landing, in which people were able to watch recorded footage for 15 minutes. ![]() However, many white South Africans, including some Afrikaners, did not share Hertzog's hostility towards what he called "the little black box". Declaring that TV would come to South Africa "over dead body," Hertzog denounced it as "only a miniature bioscope which is being carried into the house and over which parents have no control." He also argued that "South Africa would have to import films showing race mixing and advertising would make Africans dissatisfied with their lot." Albert Hertzog, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs at the time, argued that "the effect of wrong pictures on children, the less developed and other races can be destructive". Albert Hertzog, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs 1958–1968ĭr. ![]()
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