The SABC2 Afrikaans soap 7de Laan is slamming SABC2 for an English-only promo and is apologising to viewers, saying the Danie Odendaal Produksies show "remains a truly South African Afrikaans soap".
Viewers complained about promo, produced by SABC2, and only in English, after 7de Laan won the most popular South African soap award at the recent 7th South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas) which is based on viewers' votes.
7de Laan heard from many loyal fans upset about the SABC2 promo which was only aired in English and which was intended as a thank you for their votes but wasn't done in other languages.
"Danie Odendaal Produksies fully understands why the Afrikaans viewers are upset and would like to ensure viewers that 7de Laan remains a truly South African Afrikaans soap," the show says in a press statement.
"7de Laan has a very diverse audience and as many as 43% of our viewers are non-Afrikaans speaking, and are made up of English, Nguni, Sotho and other language fans. There was no intention to upset or exclude any of our fans, in fact, quite the opposite," says the show.
"Going forward, we will endeavour to make a greater effort to ensure our content is more inclusive and sensitive to all our viewers' needs. Every one of them is important to us. Again, Danie Odendaal Productions and 7de Laan would like to thank our viewers for their loyalty and for voting us the best soapie in the land. We look forward to many more years together."
