PSM INNOVATIONS

SABC to launch 24-hour news channel in indigenous languages

24th January 2023

South Africa’s public broadcaster, SABC, plans to improve news provision for all South Africans with the launch of a new 24-hour news channel in all of the country’s indigenous languages.

An indigenous language news channel is to be established to cater to the more than ten million South Africans who depend on SABC channels for news in their own language every day, said SABC’s Group Executive for News and Current Affairs, Moshoeshoe Monare.

Currently, SABC News has ten bulletins and eight current affairs shows in indigenous languages on its free to air analogue channels, SABC 1 and 2. But while some of these news bulletins command some of SABC’s largest viewership, some are fragmented throughout these channels and only aired every two days, such as Tshivenda and Xitsonga’s news bulletins, leaving people having to wait to access news and information in their own languages.

To improve their news provision for all South Africans, SABC plans to launch a brand-new news channel, called ‘Ekaya’, that will showcase all indigenous news and current affairs shows in a single channel across multiple platforms. ‘Ekaya’ – meaning ‘at home’ – will cater for ten of South Africa’s official indigenous languages, including Afrikaans, isiZulu and IsiXhosa, which are widely spoken in South Africa, and will be available on DTT, the broadcaster’s new streaming platform, SABC Plus as well as current free to air channels.

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The indigenous news bulletins will not be a simple replication or translation of the English language bulletins already catered for on news channel 404. ‘Ekaya’ will include shows with news bulletins packaged in its ten indigenous languages, excluding English. The channel will broadcast live bulletins and pre-recorded current affairs shows to address changing media consumption habits by catering for audiences who also want news and information on demand. It will also expand on some existing current affairs shows and will translate proceedings in Parliament into all indigenous languages.

The launch of ‘Ekaya’ is an innovative move towards fulfilling SABC’s democratic role. With its public service mandate, it is vital that SABC ensures that all audiences have news and information available in a timely and accessible fashion.

“As a public broadcaster, we’ve got this responsibility both morally and constitutionally to make sure that we reflect the diversity and plurality of the South African society and give that content in all our 11 languages, and this is the excitement of this channel”, Mr. Monare explained.

SABC expects to launch ‘Ekaya’ in April, which is particularly apt amid the United Nation’s Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032), an initiative aimed at preserving and promoting indigenous peoples’ languages, while mainstreaming linguistic diversity.

“As a public broadcaster, we’ve got this responsibility both morally and constitutionally to make sure that we reflect the diversity and plurality of the South African society.” – Moshoeshoe Monare, Executive of News and Current Affairs

Featured image: SABC Radio park tree. Credit: Dylan Barnes / Shutterstock.com