Page 192 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

South African media scene, pre- and post-1994, see Teer-Tomaselli and Tomaselli 2001;
Tomaselli and Tomaselli 2001.
12. On the importance of such independent review bodies, see Boafo 1992, 49.
13. I am indebted to Dr. Suleiman Dangor, of the University of Durban-Westville,
South Africa, for valuable information on the Religious Broadcasting Panel on which he
served. He made minutes of the meetings available to me. He also presented his experi-
ences at a panel on “Religious Broadcasting in South Africa” at the Eighteenth World
Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Durban, Au-
gust 11, 2000, in a paper entitled, “Transformation of the SABC from a Christian Broad-
caster to a Multifaith Broadcaster.”
14. The category of “free allocation” (12 percent), originally intended for the cover-
age of festivals and interfaith issues (Baker 2000, 240), disappeared with the renegotiated
allocations of airtime.
15. Forwarded to the ANDERE-L list from the World Conference on Religion and
Peace, Durban Chapter, February 25, 1999.
16. Andrew Worsdale, “SABC’s Dire Straits,” Mail and Guardian, June 20, 1997. This
appears to have been increased, for the 1999–2000 annual report states that 2 percent of
broadcasting schedule time is devoted to religious programs on television across the three
channels (SABC1, SABC2, and SABC3), and 7.5 percent for radio broadcasts. There are
no such statistics in the 2000–2001 annual report.
17. Available online at http://www.sabc.co.za/annual/religious.htm (accessed July 28,
2002).
18. According to the 1996 census, 74.1 percent of the population of more than 42
million claim to be Christian. “Other faiths” total 7.7 percent. Hindus and Muslims each
account for approximately 1 percent, and about 0.4 percent are Jewish. A sizable minority
of the population, more than 18.3 percent, does not belong to any of the major religious
traditions, and may be practitioners of traditional religion or have no speci¤c religious
af¤liation (see Hendriks 1999).
19. Available online at http://www.sabc.co.za/annual/annua12000/religion.pdf (ac-
cessed July 28, 2002).
20. See http://www.sabc.co.za/rel/index.htm for the range of programs.
21. Available online at http://www.sabc.co.za/annual 03/index.html (accessed Au-
gust 24, 2004).
22. Available online at http://www.suntimes.co.za/2001/10/14/arts/durban/aned01.asp
(accessed August 25, 2004).
23. See http://www.suntimes.co.za/2002/03/31/arts/durban/aned04.asp (accessed
August 25, 2004).
24. The website is at http://www.freespiritsa.co.za/ (accessed August 25, 2004).
25. See SABC Religious Policy at http://www.sabc.co.za/rel/index.htm.
26. Information from Ed Worster, Commissioning Editor, and Yashika Singh, Pro-
ducer, SABC Johannesburg, at the “Religion and the Media” panel at the Parliament of
the World’s Religions, Cape Town, December 1999. An anonymous independent pro-
ducer contracted to the SABC put a more positive spin on the cutbacks, saying it was a
useful exercise to rid SABC of mediocre and unimaginative producers. See, “SABC’s Dire
Straits,” Mail and Guardian, June 20, 1997.
27. On the growing dif¤culties facing African television stations with regard to local
production, see Bourgault 1995, 103–152.
28. More generally Ebrahim Moosa points to the recurring tensions between lo-
cal, indigenous values and worldviews and the globalizing (predominantly Western) le-

Mediated Religion in South Africa 181