“Your news. In your language.” After two years of constant reshuffles, the SABC promises Afrikaans news will return to SABC2 at 18:30, seven days a week from February 9.
According to AfriForum, since 2024, the chairman, CEO, and management of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) have repeatedly shuffled news between times and channels, sometimes canceling broadcasts without warning, even for sporting events, and terminating popular Afrikaans programmes without replacing them.
The organisation warns that these “shenanigans” have already cost the broadcaster in viewership and advertising revenue, disrupted loyal audiences, and harmed the Afrikaans entertainment industry.
Despite repeated warnings, AfriForum said management has ignored the consequences, leaving accountability and the future of Afrikaans programming in question.
On 8 April 2025, the SABC acknowledged the disruption of the Afrikaans television news over the past weekend, calling it a “scheduling error” that “should not have happened.” The broadcaster assured the public that there is no plan to discontinue or deprioritise Afrikaans news, which continues to air on weekdays, with weekend bulletins returning to their regular times.
Management confirmed that “consequence management processes were currently underway” and reiterated its commitment to providing news in all South African languages, promising a broader content and scheduling strategy to strengthen Afrikaans and other language offerings.
Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Head of Cultural Affairs, said that the SABC’s move to restore the news to SABC2 at 18:30, along with plans for a new Afrikaans telenovela, shows that their earlier warnings were justified.
“Unfortunately, many viewers are now accustomed to finding their news and entertainment elsewhere and advertisers have followed them. They are not simply going to return to SABC2, despite expensive marketing exercises. The phasing out of Afrikaans programming has also had a negative impact on the careers of many in the industry and has resulted in an exodus of talent.”
Bailey said it is “inconceivable” that the SABC made major decisions over the past two years without proper market research. She warned that in a competitive news and entertainment industry, any competent management would base changes on careful analysis, not ideology.
“In the private sector, those responsible for such mistakes are held accountable, and in the public sector, where taxpayers’ money is at stake, the standard should be even higher. Yet we see no evidence of accountability,” she added.
She also revealed that in 2025, AfriForum formally requested information from the SABC under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to assess how the rescheduling affected viewership and advertising revenue. The broadcaster has yet to provide the data, but Bailey warned that the numbers would likely have to be significant to justify such a drastic turnaround.
“In general, the Afrikaans-speaking public is fairly wealthy and loyal, but not without limits. They are the most diverse language community in the country, and according to Statista’s report of 26 January 2026, Afrikaans is the home language of 12.2% of South Africans.
''It is the third most used language in local households after Zulu (25.3%) and Xhosa (14.8%). The public broadcaster has a duty to provide even more service to this community than will be the case in this new dispensation,” Bailey said.
The Star
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