Page 186 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

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Fig. 8.2. Gospel Gold: Among the top performing religious programs on television, it
provides a platform for South Africa’s gospel music industry. SABC Annual Report,
2002–2003.

front have been outside funding and “the neglect of African culture in the pub-
25
lic media.” The question of funding became critical in the late 1990s when
drastic cutbacks occurred, forcing creative measures on the part of the religious
26
broadcasting staff. For a time American Christian programming took up the
slack (as it has in many other African countries), but this was eventually seen
as compromising the democratization process in the country. Moreover, there
was reluctance to allow religious groups to use independent funding as a means
of securing additional broadcast time. However, owing to ¤nancial considera-
tions, a decision was taken to allow selective sales of airtime, sponsorships, and
classical advertising as long as “pro¤ts from such endeavors enable SABC to
fund more of its own local religious productions” and “such contracts do not
in one way or another compromise either the editorial independence or integrity
of the SABC or its Policy on Religious Broadcasts” (cf. Nkosi 1994). 27
The second challenge for religious broadcasting in South Africa has been
28
to contextualize and re®ect African reality. The SABC Policy on Religious
Broadcasting (revised and approved by the SABC Board in 1998) alludes to
some of the battles fought over the place of traditional African religion: “In
order to correct further neglect of African culture in the public media, special
attention should be given to African Traditional Religion (ATR) and traditional
cultures.” This needs to be seen against the background of the African Renais-
sance movement launched by President Thabo Mbeki in the late 1990s (see
29
Makgoba 1999). For several analysts, the capacity of the media to serve as fa-
Mediated Religion in South Africa 175