{"id":13968,"date":"2023-02-01T10:01:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T10:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/sabc\/?p=13968"},"modified":"2023-02-01T10:02:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T10:02:45","slug":"media-statement-sabc-launches-news-channel-for-african-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/media-statement-sabc-launches-news-channel-for-african-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"MEDIA STATEMENT | SABC LAUNCHES NEWS CHANNEL FOR AFRICAN LANGUAGES"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg – Wednesday, 1 February 2023 – <\/strong>The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will offer the public service broadcaster\u2019s first ever 24-hour news channel in African languages in April 2023.\u00a0 In addition, this channel will offer an extensive coverage of parliamentary proceedings.<\/p>\n

The launch of this channel is in line with the SABC\u2019s public mandate obligation, for the provision of universal access, as enjoined by the relevant legislation governing the SABC.<\/p>\n

The imminent launch of this channel reinforces the SABC\u2019s pivotal role in facilitating social cohesion, by providing a wide range of programming that caters for the needs of the entire society. The SABC is also driven by the three key principles in its news delivery and value proposition: the principle of inclusion, deliberation and opinion formation which are aimed at empowering citizens to be part of participatory democracy, despite their socio-economic status, geographical location and language.<\/p>\n

The channel, which is not new, was acquired in 2018 and publicly accessed through the DTT platform from 2019, offering parliamentary proceedings exclusively. In line with the SABC\u2019s governance framework, a business decision was made to reposition the channel to offer more than parliamentary proceedings and include bulletins and current affairs in African languages. This channel will continue to broadcast on DTT and will be added on the public broadcaster\u2019s OTT platform.<\/p>\n

The SABC\u2019s Group Executive: News and Current Affairs, Mr. Moshoeshoe Monare stated that\u00a0 \u201cThis is our response to the demand from millions of our viewers yearning for extensive news coverage and a dedicated channel in their own languages. The response from our viewers was phenomenal and this is not a replication of our English news channel. We are telling different stories of our communities and reflecting people\u2019s aspirations in their own languages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monare further stated that \u201cThis public news service is an added platform to serve mainly communities that are not necessarily reached by mainstream commercial media. These are millions of viewers who wait until evening, to watch less than half an hour bulletins in their own languages. SABC News is well positioned to rise to this challenge, because of its decades of experience in public broadcasting in indigenous languages\u201d.<\/p>\n

The SABC reiterates its commitment as the country\u2019s only public service broadcaster, to fulfil its constitutional mandate of delivering news and current affairs content that reflects the diverse South African society.<\/p>\n

All the details pertaining to the channel will be revealed soon.<\/p>\n

ENDS <\/strong><\/p>\n

Issued By: Group Communications <\/strong><\/p>\n

Media Enquiries: Mmoni Seapolelo (Acting Group Executive: Corporate Affairs & Marketing) <\/strong><\/p>\n

Seapolelomv@sabc.co.za<\/strong><\/a> | T. 011 714 3057 | C. 073 688 1590<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg – Wednesday, 1 February 2023 – The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will offer the public service broadcaster\u2019s first ever 24-hour news channel in African languages in April 2023.\u00a0 In addition, this channel will offer an extensive coverage of parliamentary proceedings. The launch of this channel is in line with the SABC\u2019s public mandate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13969,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13968\/revisions\/13969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}