LANGUAGE
INTRODUCTION
As South Africa's public broadcaster, the SABC embraces the constitutional duty to treat all the
official languages equitably, and with equal respect. The Constitution also recognises the need to
promote South African Sign Language and "the Khoi, Nama and San languages".
We are conscious of the important part the public broadcaster should play in facilitating the
fulfilment of these rights, and pledge our commitment to working towards these goals.
This Language Policy is derived further from the Corporation's commitment to
freedom of expression, which is protected by the Constitution, including the right of all South
Africans to receive and impart information. We recognise that freedom of expression can be
realised fully only when every South African can inform and be informed in their language of
choice. Access to meaningful information would also empower South Africans to participate
effectively in every facet of society.
We also recognise that language plays a crucial part in promoting and attaining the goals of
building our democracy and our nation, and protecting and developing our uniquely diverse
cultures. This is because the use and development of language is closely linked to the
development of culture and identity. These matters are particularly important in our relatively new
democracy, where language will be instrumental in its growth and development.
Owing to its virtually universal accessibility and use, the public broadcaster has a unique
responsibility to broadcast programmes that promote development of national identity while
supporting development of our languages and cultures. South Africa, and consequently the
public broadcaster, is faced with a further challenge: that of bringing marginalised national
languages, cultures and identities into the mainstream, so that they can develop and flourish, and
become a core part of our nation building project.

STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT
This policy takes into account the Constitution and a range of legislative and regulatory
requirements — in particular those contained in the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act, the
Broadcasting Act, and ICASA policies and regulations.
Drawing on these, the SABC commits itself to being the voice and vision of every South African.
Accordingly, we
provide a range of distinctive, creative and top quality programmes in all 11 official
languages across our radio and television portfolio, and strive to reflect the needs of each
language community in our programming
maintain distinct and separate radio services in each of the 11 official languages
treat all the official languages equitably on our television services
integrate South Africa Sign Language into broadcasting as a means of making
programming accessible to people with hearing disabilities
strive to include other non-official languages spoken in South Africa, with
particular emphasis on the Khoi, Nama and San languages.

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In acting on these commitments the SABC will be guided by the following:
The need for institutions, including the public broadcaster, to take practical and positive steps
to treat all the official languages fairly
The need to address the marginalisation of indigenous languages and South African Sign
Language in recognition of the impact of the previous systematic marginalisation of those
languages
The obligation to reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity, and multilingual nature of South
Africa while promoting national unity

 The SABC's responsibility to be responsive to the needs of all South Africans, including the
deaf
The importance of language in communication as the carrier of values, attitudes, culture and
expression.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The SABC's primary role is to make its programmes accessible to all the audiences, and in that
regard language is fundamental to meaningful communication. In keeping with this, the SABC
aims to:
Inform, educate and entertain South Africans in their home languages
Promote understanding and acceptance of and between the linguistic and cultural groups in
South Africa
Contribute to continual development of the 11 official languages and South African Sign
Language
Promote multilingualism in South Africa.

SCOPE OF THE POLICY
The SABC is, in terms of the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act and the Broadcasting Act,
required to provide broadcasting services in all the official languages and to cater specifically for
the needs of people with hearing disabilities. Accordingly, this is an overarching policy, affecting
many activities of the Corporation.
This policy should therefore be considered when the SABC:
Develops strategic plans for the Corporation
Develops business plans and budgets for the Corporation
Formulates programme strategies, policies and plans for each radio station and television
channel
Determines training needs and strategies
Develops audience research projects to gauge the needs of viewers and listeners and to assess
response to programmes
Formulates plans for universal service and access to broadcasting
Investigates and formulates plans for the use of innovative technology.

USE OF LANGUAGE IN BROADCASTING
In fulfilling its duty to protect and nurture South Africa's official languages, the SABC strives to
ensure that they are all spoken correctly. In doing so the SABC commits itself to celebrating the
rich diversity of dialects and accents in each language group.
The SABC recognises that languages are dynamic, continually developing and adapting to
circumstances; language in broadcasting should therefore take account of the evolution of
languages.
Moreover, language usage should accord with the programme genre. It is fair to assume that
more formal language would be used in news programmes, whereas more conversational,
colloquial or everyday language would be used in drama.
Language in broadcasting should also take account of the social expectations and values of
different language groups, and the right of every South African to be treated with respect and
dignity. Language usage in broadcasting should therefore avoid giving offence and causing hurt
unnecessarily. It should encourage respect and concern for everyone, and be free of elements such
as prejudice, and racist and sexist connotations. The Programming Policy and the Policy on News,
Current Affairs and Information Programming expand further on this issue.

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 OPERATING PRINCIPLES
In striving to play its part in reaching these common national goals, the SABC's Language
Broadcasting Policy takes account of, and is shaped by, a number of operating principles:
Use of groupings such as cognate, shared and widely understood languages so as to make
the most cost effective use of scarce resources
Special action on marginalised languages
Attainment of language goals, including the use of South African Sign Language, firstly in
targeted programme genres
Combined use of unilingual and multilingual programming
Coverage of events of national importance to promote the development of national identity,
unity and nation building
Fair allocation of resources to achieve quality in programmes on all the broadcasting
platforms
Application of appropriate technologies to achieve language coverage and access goals
Use of research to understand audiences' language broadcasting needs
Introduction of annual plans to focus implementation and monitoring of the Language Policy
Development of mutually beneficial relationships with key social partners, notably the Pan
South African Language Board.
These operating principles are elaborated on below.

RADIO
Radio is still the most widely used and most accessible broadcasting medium in South Africa. It
is used in homes, cars, taxis, trains, malls and food courts. South Africans can listen to the radio
all day and all night. As audiences have fragmented increasingly into niche markets there has
arisen a special responsibility for the SABC, as the public broadcaster, to offer South Africans a
wide range of programmes — irrespective of age, income or language. Accordingly, the SABC is
charged with providing quality radio services in all 11 official languages. In making this pledge
the SABC notes:
The crucial part radio plays in the lives of many South Africans, as it is often the only
medium available to them in their home language, and in many instances the only medium
available at all
The under-development of previously disadvantaged people and of their languages in
South Africa, which must be redressed if we are to meet our commitment to delivering
excellent radio services
The unique part radio can play in promoting people's right to receive information, to
express themselves, and to inform others.
The SABC further commits itself to providing quality radio programmes in non-official South
African languages, in particular in the Khoi, Nama and San languages.

PROGRAMMING GUIDELINES
A language service should be sensitive to and reflect the needs and lifestyles of the speakers
of that language — including those of children, young people, urban and rural dwellers, and
the elderly
A language service should provide programming in genres such as news and information,
children’s/educational programmes, and entertainment
Programmes should aim to reflect the realities of the target audience, while recognising their
right to a wide range of programming from throughout South Africa and the world
Programmes should aim to foster unity and common South Africanness.

NEWS AND INFORMATION PROGRAMMES

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The SABC recognises the important part news and information programmes play in enabling
every South African to participate effectively, and from an informed basis, in building our
democracy, nation and economy. Meaningful access to information is therefore essential, and
involves not only reporting events, but analysing issues of significance as well.

 LANGUAGE

We commit ourselves to providing comprehensive radio news and information programmes in all
the official languages.

BROADCASTING EVENTS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE
The SABC is committed to airing events of national importance, such as the annual State of the
Nation Address at the Opening of Parliament, and the Budget Speech, that warrant full or
extended live coverage. Coverage of these events gives South Africans access to important and
relevant information about our developing nation. On such occasions the SABC strives to ensure
that all its language services cover them. To this end, the language services collaborate with, and
complement, one another's programmes and schedules. The Policy on News, Current Affairs and
Information Programming gives more information on broadcasting events of national
importance.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMES
The Broadcasting Act requires the SABC to meet children's programming needs. Children require
informative, educational and entertaining programmes of excellent quality, in their home
language, aimed specifically at addressing their needs and instilling a sense of pride in their
culture and language. These needs vary according to the circumstances and ages of
children, from pre-school to schoolgoing and adolescence.
Radio programmes have a supportive role in nurturing and developing children's language
capacity, and cultural knowledge and experiences. Programmes can also assist in promoting
understanding between children of different language and cultural communities.
The SABC addresses the needs of children in its language radio services by offering programmes
that cater specifically for them.
The Programming Policy give more information on children's programmes.

ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES
The SABC commits itself to ensuring fair allocation of financial and other resources to the
language services so that they can meet the requirements of broadcasting programmes of
excellent quality.
In allocating its resources, the SABC takes into account the historical imbalances between English
and Afrikaans on one hand, and the nine African languages on the other. Moreover, the SABC
takes into account that radio, owing to people’s lower literacy levels and poverty, remains for
many the only medium available for receiving essential education and information, and good
quality entertainment. Special attention is therefore paid to developing and expanding
programmes on services that target historically disadvantaged communities.

UNIVERSAL ACCESS
Through its Universal Service and Access Policy, which is described separately, the SABC ensures
that its language services are accessible to South Africans who speak those languages.

TELEVISION
The SABC is committed to treating all the official languages equitably on television. This is
achieved across the television portfolio as a whole, not on each individual channel. Over time, the
SABC is committed to increasing the air-time of other official languages in local programming.
Since prime time (18:00-22:00) is relatively short, the SABC is committed to considering and
implementing innovative strategies for providing programmes equitably in all the official
languages. One such strategy being implemented is to schedule programmes in different
languages on and across SABC television channels in a complementary way.

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 In fulfilling its mandate to provide television programmes in all the official languages, the SABC
takes into account the following:
The Constitutional requirement to treat all the official languages equitably
The comparatively little television air time available, especially in prime time, and the
complexities of allocating time equitably to all the languages
The similarities and differences between the official languages; for example, certain
languages are part of a cognate group (languages that are mutually understandable within
that group)1 , others are not cognate but shared and understood by different communities2,
whereas some are neither mutually understandable nor widely spoken3. In addition, some
language communities are much bigger than others
The realisation that certain languages are recognised as being more marginalised than
others (XiTsonga, TshiVenda, SisSwati and SiNdebele) and the additional responsibility this
places on institutions such as the SABC to address this marginalisation
The need to address historical underdevelopment of the vast majority of South Africans and
their languages in order to realise the rights of all people to equality and dignity
The unique potential of television to showcase cultures and languages creatively; to nurture
people’s knowledge and experience of one another, and to contribute to developing a
national identity.

GUIDELINES FOR EQUITABLE TREATMENT
The term equitable means just, fair and reasonable — not necessarily equal — treatment. In
this regard, the SABC aims to broadcast every official language on television, while ensuring
that programmes are accessible to as many viewers as possible. We aim to complement our
national television service by providing regional services as required by the Broadcasting Act,
(as amended) pending the licensing of these services by ICASA and appropriation of funds
for this purpose, by Parliament
Equitability is achieved through a combination of means, including unilingual productions
and multilingual programmes. We strive to explore the use of technologies such as subtitling
to ensure that programmes are accessible to as many viewers as possible. At times this
objective is met the best by broadcasting in cognate or widely understood languages. When
this is applied, the SABC rotates the use of languages in any cognate group in order to
achieve equitability.
In striving to achieve equitability, the following matters are taken into account:
The overall time allocated to each language
Scheduling of programmes when members of the target audiences are available
The range of programme genres available in each language
Financial and other resources for programmes in each of the official languages.
In determining allocation of time to each language, the SABC has due regard to:
The number of home language speakers in the coverage area of a channel
The geographical spread of the language
The extent to which members of a language community are able to understand other
languages
The extent of marginalisation of the language
The extent to which it is understood by other South Africans
Available resources.
These criteria are intended to ensure that all the languages receive some air time, but not
necessarily in equal amounts. Moreover, when these criteria are applied effectively, we dedicate a
greater amount of programme time to more widely spoken or shared languages, while
committing ourselves to special projects for marginalised languages.

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 LANGUAGE

TELEVISION PROGRAMMING
For television programming, the SABC commits itself to the following principles:
Across the television portfolio, the SABC aims to broadcast a range of top quality
programmes in each of the official languages in order to meet the information, education
and entertainment needs of audiences comprehensively
The SABC aims to produce and screen news and information, children's educational
programmes, and drama in different languages, while not neglecting other genres
The SABC aims to ensure that programmes in specific languages are broadcast at times to
suit most of the members of the target audience in that language community
The SABC aims to broadcast programmes in the different languages that reflect the needs,
lifestyles and circumstances of speakers of that language, including the children, young
people, urban and rural dwellers, and the elderly
Scheduling of programmes across the SABC channels should be sensitive to audiences' right
to have access to a range of programmes in their home language, and in languages they
understand. To this end, television programmes across the channels are scheduled in a
complementary manner
Programmes are aimed at fostering unity and a common South African identity, instead of
separateness, and at promoting cross-cultural knowledge, appreciation and understanding.
We believe our country's diverse language groups and regions should be reflected to the
nation and to themselves
The SABC creatively combines unilingual and multilingual programmes, and uses
broadcasting technologies such as subtitling, to reach its language goals.

UNILINGUAL PROGRAMMES
The SABC ensures that accross the television portfolio some programmes are dedicated to each
official language. A programme would be classified as being in an official language if most of the
programme were in that language.

MULTILINGUAL PROGRAMMES
The SABC is conscious of the part multilingual programmes can play in promoting knowledge and
understanding of the country's diversity of languages and cultures. Such programmes, when used
creatively, also reach out to wider audiences.
Accordingly, the SABC actively encourages production of meaningful multilingual
programmes as a means of attaining its language broadcasting objectives. Multilingual
programmes are those that include substantial amounts of more than one official language.

TELEVISION NEWS, CURRENT AFFAIRS AND INFORMATION PROGRAMMES
The SABC is specifically obligated to provide comprehensive news and information programmes.
As stated previously, meaningful access to information involves not only reporting on events, but
providing substantial analysis of issues surrounding such events. Accordingly, the following
principles are applied to all the SABC news, current affairs and information programmes on
television:
The SABC screens television news bulletins in all the official languages, and is sensitive to
audience availability in scheduling news programmes
Given the constraints of channel air time, the SABC makes use of cognate languages, on a
rotational basis, and widely understood languages to meet this mandate
The SABC ensures that information programmes, including current affairs and
documentaries, serve the needs of different language communities. In meeting this
commitment, the SABC takes due cognisance of the fact that several languages are cognate
to each other, or widely understood.

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 BROADCASTING EVENTS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE
The SABC is committed to broadcasting events of national importance that warrant full or
extended live coverage, such as the annual State of the Nation address by the President at the
opening of Parliament, and the Budget speech.
When such events are televised, the SABC strives to ensure that the broadcasts are accessible to
the widest range of South African language communities. This can be achieved through use of a
combination of cognate languages and widely understood languages, and innovative use of
broadcasting technology such as multiple soundtracks, subtitling, and Sign language. In this
regard, the SABC strives to broadcast events of national importance in the six language groups as
provided for in the National Language Policy Framework, developed by the Department of Arts
and Culture. The Policy on News, Current Affairs and Information Policy gives more information
on broadcasting events of national importance.

CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMES
Children require informative, educational and entertaining programming of excellent quality, in
their home language, that is aimed specifically at addressing their needs and instilling a sense of
pride in their culture and language. These needs vary according to the circumstances and ages of
children, from pre-school to schoolgoing and adolescence. The SABC recognises that many
children, particularly pre-school children, understand only their home language.
The SABC aims to broadcast a range of top quality educational, informative and entertaining
television programmes for children of different age groups that are responsive to their
language needs. This can be accomplished by means such as dubbing, multilingual programming
and subtitling that is age appropriate. When acquiring and broadcasting children's programmes
the SABC takes children's language requirements into account. More information on children's
programmes is detailed in the Programming Policy.

DRAMA
Drama provides a unique means of telling our South African stories, and learning from and about
one another. The SABC broadcasts top quality South African television dramas that in
combination include and reflect South African languages and cultures. We also undertake to
investigate innovative and creative ways of ensuring that such dramas are accessible to as wide
a range of audiences as possible, such as multilingual productions, subtitling, and dubbing.

MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING, AND THE BLIND
The SABC is committed to responding to the broadcasting needs of all its audiences. Responding
effectively to the needs of people with disabilities is an important part of our mandate. The SABC
develops specific plans to facilitate access to its broadcasts for people with disabilities.
Broadcasting of programmes in South African Sign Language, as a recognised South African
language, is one of the means of meeting the needs of people with hearing disabilities. While the
broadcasting of Sign Language interpretation facilitates access to programming by the deaf and
hard of hearing, it also creates knowledge and understanding of South Africa's substantial deaf
and hard of hearing community, and so contributes to nation building.
The SABC progressively expands the amount of programming that is signed, beginning with
selected news and current affairs, and events of national importance. Special efforts are being
made to provide Sign Language interpretation when programmes are recorded in front of live
audiences. Such efforts facilitate participation by people from the deaf and hard of hearing
communities in such programmes.

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While focusing on providing programming that is signed, the SABC also acknowledges that a
holistic approach is needed to address the needs of the deaf community. In this regard, closed
captioning may offer a viable solution. The SABC will continue to explore various technology
options which may assist in providing a holistic approach in addressing the needs of the deaf
community.

 LANGUAGE

In meeting the broadcasting needs of South Africa's blind communities, the SABC undertakes to
investigate the use of innovative technologies such as audio-description.

ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES
The SABC acknowledges that it is faced with limited air time and other broadcasting resources.
In order to achieve its language broadcasting objectives, the SABC undertakes to achieve fair and
equitable allocation of financial and other resources when commissioning and airing programmes
in the official languages.

UNIVERSAL SERVICE AND ACCESS
The Broadcasting Act requires that, as circumstances permit, a range of programmes in South
Africa's official languages should be extended to all South Africans. The SABC undertakes to
pursue this objective with regard to television, through its Universal Service and Access Policy.

RESEARCH
The needs and demographics of our language communities are changing and
evolving continually. Since the SABC is committed to serving the broadcasting needs of these
communities, it undertakes to research these needs regularly, and to ensure that such research
informs its programming and scheduling strategies. The SABC also makes use of research to
assess whether the strategies and innovations it implements meet audience expectations
adequately.

TECHNOLOGY
The SABC recognises that technology offers innovative means of meeting the challenges of
broadcasting in the country's official languages and South African Sign Language. The SABC
therefore commits itself to undertaking relevant research into the creative use of technologies to
facilitate implementation of its mandate.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS
The SABC recognises that it has a significant part to play in contributing to equitable treatment
of all the official languages and South African Sign Language. It believes it can fulfill its
responsibilities effectively in collaboration with other organisations that have also been
established to further these aims, such as the Pan South African Language Board. The SABC
therefore establishes mutually beneficial working relationships with such organisations to
facilitate compliance with the Language Policy outlined in this document.

MONITORING AND IMPLEMENTATION
This Language Policy lies at the core of our public service mandate as the public broadcasting
service in South Africa. In order to ensure its implementation, the Board and
management of the SABC have established specific appraisal and monitoring processes. The
Board requires management to submit an annual language action plan that
identifies future goals arising from this policy. A summary of achievements of the previous year is
also to be attached to the language action plan in order to facilitate a review of the achievements,
opportunities and challenges.
The summary includes the following:
An account of the performance on language, including South African Sign Language, in the
previous year
A summary of the findings of any relevant research

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 A summary of professional developmental programmes undertaken to meet the
competence and skills needs of implementing this policy
A summary of investigations into the use of technology, and application of technologies to
implement this language policy.
The SABC also undertakes to publish relevant parts of this information as part of the Corporation’s
Annual Report to Parliament.

REVIEW
This policy is reviewed by the SABC Board every five years.

1Nguni

and Sesotho languages are recognised as being cognate languages
example English and Afrikaans are not cognate but home language speakers of
one often understand the other. In addition, these languages are understood by
members of other language communities.
3For example, XiTsonga and TshiVenda
2For

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