According to the 21 April 1996 edition of “The Sunday Times”, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has banned three songs, claiming that their lyrics were “in bad taste” and would “cause offence.” Sung in the Afrikaans language, the songs are said to have contained swear words which are considered “undesirable” to some members of […]
According to the 21 April 1996 edition of “The Sunday Times”, the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has banned three
songs, claiming that their lyrics were “in bad taste” and would
“cause offence.” Sung in the Afrikaans language, the songs are
said to have contained swear words which are considered
“undesirable” to some members of the public in South Africa.
Artist David Kramer’s song, “Kobus Le Grange Marias”, is reported
to have been found “undesirable” by the SABC. The song is
actually a poem that tells the story about a right-wing
Afrikaaner who is bitter and disturbed about the reformed
National Party’s “betrayal” of his people. A song by Nathaniel
Swart, entitled “Butterfly”, tells of a man going out to a
concert for the first time but which, reports “The Sunday Times”,
contains the Afrikaans version of “an infamous swearword.” And
Valiant Swart’s song, “Slangdans”, was banned because it
contained the word “whore” in the last line of the song.
Mohamed Shaikh, SABC’s Afrikaans producer, stated that he had
decided to “put on hold” the three songs not because of the
vulgarity of the words but because the songs “are not in the
interest of nation building.” He said that South Africa came from
a sensitive past where numerous hate and immoral words were used
against different classes of people. Shaikh added, however, that
he had not put a blanket ban on the songs.
“The Sunday Times” reported SABC’s Radio Chief Executive, Govin
Reddy, saying that he was looking into the criteria by which the
SABC judged songs. “At the moment, it’s too loose and allows too
much room for personal preference.” However, on 25 April, Reddy
told MISA that there is no law in place against tracks containing
vulgar language. “The manager in the library uses his discretion
whether to ban tracks containing vulgar language,” he said.
Reddy said that he was aware of the inconsistency of the ban with
what the draft Constitution says about freedom of expression.
However, he contended that such a ban could be justified without
necessarily going against the constitutional guarantee of freedom
of expression, adding that “freedom of expression is not
absolute.”
Reddy, however, says that he himself is not happy with the policy
to ban tracks for containing vulgar words. He cited Nathaniel’s
argument that there are tracks containing vulgar language that
are still being played on the air. Said Reddy: “The policy is not
consistent at all. And we are trying to revise the policy.”
The ban has occurred in spite of the draft Constitution’s
guarantees of freedom of expression, even though attempts are
being made to restrict hate and immoral expressions.
Nevertheless, media and human rights organisations contend that
this ban is in conflict with the draft Constitution.
However, Nathaniel reportedly said that the banning of his songs
was nothing new to him. Although he has had his songs banned
before, he finds it strange that some of the songs still allowed
on air “have so much swearing that even I get shocked,” he is
quoted as saying in “The Sunday Times”. For his part, Valiant
told the paper that “If Afrikaans is ever to be allowed out of
its prison, the SABC had better stopped (sic) doing this kind of
thing.”
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