I recently picked up a used book called “The London Times History of Our Times”, published in 1971, and it is proving to be the most interesting read. For one thing in 1971 communism was still going strong, and it was seen as a real threat, it’s very interesting to see the perspective of the times.
But in the culture section of the book I found the astonishing fact that as of 1971 South Africa remained the only country where there was not TV broadcasting! In fact according to this article it wasn’t until 1976 when official broadcasts started.
According to both the book and Wikipedia the reason for the ban on television was that the government feared that TV would undermine the ideology of apartheid.
All 5 of the South Africans I have known well were/are extreamly well read, articulate, and very curious and physically active. They all would have been in thier late teens or older in 1976. Hmmm!
I always thought that was strange considering how other regimes were happy to simply start a government controled channel and used it for propaganda. .
In the book Mini-Mysteries (think of a minor-league Encyclopedia Brown if you’re familiar with that boy detective), one of the tales involves this phenomenon. I forget the setup, but the solution is as follows: “Simple. There is no television in the Union of South Africa.” *
Yes, the country was officially the Republic of South Africa by the time the book was published, but I distinctly remember Union being used.
In January 2005 I did a short study abroad program in South Africa. Part of the program was a visit to SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation). While there a SABC representative told us that South Africa did not have TV because the government was afraid it would allow outside governments and groups to broadcast anti-apartheid programs.
On the other hand our Professor a South African who is now the dean of the Information Technology department of my university said it was because the puritanical South African government was concerned with the immorality on television.
In 1971 my neighbors there were paying for TV licences in advance.
They paid for radio licences, which certainly seems strange. How can you enforce that when the signal is broadcast? But for TV licences it was like holding a place in line when the new medium finally arrived and you could buy whatever was going to be sold.
At the time they were debating whether to use the French or German standard, sort of like the HDTV conflicts that came later.
