Television in South Africa

Television in South Africa was introduced in 1976. South Africa was relatively late in introducing television broadcasting to its population.

Even though the state-controlled South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) had a virtual monopoly on radio broadcasting, it also saw the new medium as a threat to Afrikaans and the Afrikaner volk, giving undue prominence to English, and creating unfair competition for the Afrikaans press.

Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd compared television with atomic bombs and poison gas, claiming that "they are modern things, but that does not mean they are desirable. The government has to watch for any dangers to the people, both spiritual and physical."

Dr. Albert Hertzog, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs at the time, said that TV would come to South Africa "over [his] dead body," denouncing 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 [non-white] Africans dissatisfied with their lot." The new medium was then regarded as the "devil's own box, for disseminating communism and immorality".

However, many white South Africans, including some Afrikaners, did not share Hertzog's hostility towards what he called "the little black box". 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.

The opposition United Party pointed out that even less economically advanced countries in Africa had already introduced television. 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. Known as Rhodesian Television (RTV), its major shareholders were South African companies, including the Argus Group of newspapers, parent company of the Rhodesia Herald, and Davenport and Meyer, the latter of which operated LM Radio, based in Mozambique, then under Portuguese rule.

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