SABC slammed for scrapping of all TV news bulletins in South Africa's other languages on SABC News channel.

The SABC is slammed for its scrapping of all TV news bulletins in South Africa's other official languages besides English on the public broadcaster's SABC News (DStv 404) channel, with PEN South Africa saying that "at a time where the country is divided by a heated debate about the British colonial legacy of Cecil John Rhodes, the SABC is surely obliged to consult with the public it intends to inform and empower".

The SABC dropped all of its daily TV news bulletins in South Africa's vernacular languages on the SABC News channel since yesterday, without responding to media enquiries as to what prompted the decision and why the public broadcaster is scaling back in its TV news offering in South Africa's other official languages on the 24-hour TV news channel it launched in August 2013.

Gone since yesterday are all bulletins on the SABC News channel which were done in Zulu, Afrikaans, Siswati, Tsonga, Xhosa, isiNdelebe, Sotho and Venda throughout a day.

"PEN South Africa strongly object to the cancellation of additional TV news bulletins in other indigenous South African languages on SABC News (DStv channel 404)," said the organisation in a statement.

"This decision shows a clear lack of commitment from our public broadcaster to the multilingualism and linguistic rights enshrined in the South African Constitution and Bill of Rights."

"This lack of commitment is sadly ironic, considering that the SABC states on its website and in marketing material 'a unique selling point is SABC News Channel's multilingual programming' and that SABC News is delivered 'to audiences in all 11 South African official languages," says PEN SOuth Africa.

When the SABC launched the SABC News channel in 2013, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, chief operating officer (COO) of the SABC said that the channel "is an opportunity for the public broadcaster to enhance its public service mandate and extend its focus on provincial stories and the different official languages".

"PEN South Africa believe it is the duty of the SABC as a public broadcaster committed to peaceful dialogue and communication in a multicultural, multilingual society, to reconsider its decision to cancel all TV news bulletins in languages other than English on SABC News," says the organisation.

"If the SABC wants to opt for English only on a news channel created to serve all South Africans at a time where the country is divided by a heated debate about the British colonial legacy of Cecil John Rhodes, it is surely obliged to consult with the public it intends to inform and empower."

Civil society 'deeply alarmed' at DStv's Parliamentary Service TV channel being cut and censored for the third time in three months.

YouTube screengrab/Gwandile

MultiChoice's Parliamentary Service TV channel (DStv 408) on the DStv satellite pay-TV platform has become "must-see" television for South Africans and the world - because of what it's not showing.

The world is now watching DStv's Parliamentary Service TV channel as another example of shocking encroaching censorship, with the channel which was cut again this past Thursday for the third time in as many months - preventing South Africans from seeing what is going in in parliament.

Neither the Parliamentary Service TV channel nor MultiChoice has so far offered any explanations as to why the TV channel is not doing what its purpose it - which is showing the live events, debates and situations as it unfolds inside parliament.

Viewers are wondering what the use is of the DStv parliamentary TV channel if its blacked out and the feed cut when they want to watch it, while civil society watch groups are becoming increasingly concerned about the blatant censorship that happens every time something happens inside South Africa's parliament certain people decide they don't want the South African public to see.

Viewers got a glimpse of what actually happened inside South Africa's National Assembly on Thursday evening thanks to cellphone footage which quickly made its way onto 24-hour TV news channels like eNCA (DStv 403).

"South Africans have the right to know who gave these instructions and who should be held to account for such deeply undemocratic tendencies," says Right2Know Campaign (R2K) spokesperson Murray Hunter.

"There has been no credible explanation for the cutting of Parliament's live television feed, and no explanation can justify it," said Murray Hunter.

PEN South Africa, part of an international organisation which represents writers, editors and translators, and whose members have pledged themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression or censorship but to uphold freedom of the press, says it is "deeply alarmed" at the censorship.

PEN South Africa says it's concerned about the "serious manipulation of the TV reporting of the proceedings in parliament where the camera pictures were cut thus preventing citizens of the country from viewing the actual proceedings in the house, the unruliness of MP's and alleged assaults by police".

PEN South Africa rightly states that "the manipulation and censoring of Parliament's TV broadcasts has occured on more than one occasion in recent weeks" and is "deeply alarmed that these are deliberate and serious inroads on freedom of expression and transparency, core values which form the basis of our constitutional democracy".

The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) is also protesting the censorship to have the Parliamentary TV channel on DStv cut.

has dispatched a letter to the spokesperson of Parliament, Luzuko Jacobs, protesting against the soft censorship that is creeping into the broadcasting of proceedings.

"On Thursday, the feed was cut off at a time when there were scuffles. This followed two other incidents on August 21 and last week when a member of the opposition was arguing with the Speaker ending with that Member being suspended."

"In this latter instance, the feed was manipulated to stay focused on the Speaker, thus not allowing the public to get the full picture of the on goings in the House," says Sanef.

"Sanef reiterates its call for presiding officers in parliament to ensure that there is no censorship of the debates in the house, irrespective of the content of those debates and the need for presiding officers to protect the image of the house."