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| About SA > Communications |
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Introduction
South Africa boasts an outstanding telecommunications infrastructure and a diversity of print and broadcast media. Telecommunications is the fastest growing industry in South Africa.
Access
The Department of Communications aims to give ordinary South Africans access to information and infrastructure. This includes:
- telemedicine
- tele-education
- convenience measures such as teleshopping and telebanking
The Telecommunications Amendment Act, 2001 provides for operators, especially black- and women-owned operators, to be licensed in areas with teledensities of less than 5%. The process to appoint a Second National Operator continues.
Mobile communications
South Africa is the world’s fourth fastest growing cellular communications market. By October 2003, there were 15 million cellular users, a number expected to grow to 21 million by 2006.
The country has three mobile operators:
Vodacom, which is 50% owned by Telkom, has 61% of the cellular market, with seven million customers. MTN has almost five million subscribers and coverage of 900 000 km2 (including sea), giving access to 94.5% of the population. The country’s third cellular operator, Cell C, began operations in November 2001. By August 2003, Cell C had 1.5 million subscribers.
Internet
Some 2.89 million South Africans (one out of every 15) had access to the Internet by the end of 2001. The number will grow to around 4.78 million (just under 10% of the population) by the end of 2005.
Bringing communications and services to all the people
In the 2001/02 financial year, 100 Public Internet Terminals (PITs) were established countrywide. By April 2004, 55 Multi-Purpose Community Centres, at which rural and historically disadvantaged communities can access communications and government services, had been established. Inside these Centres, telephony and PITs are available. By the end of 2004, it is expected that 18 Citizens’ Post Offices will have been established. These Post Offices, mostly in rural areas, will have space dedicated to both traditional and new electronic communications.
Postal sector
The Government-subsidised SA Post Office (SAPO) is required to provide a basic letter service that is reasonably accessible to all. The SAPO delivers to an area of more than 1.2 million m2 and uses 2 760 postal outlets and 30 mail processing centres. The SAPO delivers mail to 6.5 million addresses of which 3.4 million are street addresses.
Since 1999, the SAPO only enjoys a monopoly on letter mail up to 1 kg. In terms of its 25-year licence, SAPO is expected to meet explicit service targets and is monitored by a regulator. Annually, the SAPO prints more than 384 million stamps and serves stamp collectors and dealers throughout the world.
The media
The freedom of the press and other media is guaranteed by South Africa’s Bill of Rights.
Broadcasting
The independence of the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is guaranteed by legislation. The SABC is being corporatised and restructured to better fulfil its mandate.
Radio
The SABC’s national radio network comprises 20 stations with a combined daily audience of 20 million. Radio News has 13 editorial offices and 1 300 correspondents. Targeting the rest of Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, Channel Africa broadcasts in English, French, Kiswahili and Portuguese. In addition to the SABC, private radio stations licensed by the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), are:
Classic FM in Gauteng
Cape Talk MW in the Western Cape
P4, a jazz station in Cape Town
Kaya FM, a multilingual youth radio station in Gauteng
Y-FM, broadcasting in Johannesburg in isiZulu, Sesotho and English
Radio KFM
Radio Algoa
Radio Oranje
Highveld Stereo
Radio 702 in Gauteng
East Coast Radio
Radio Jacaranda
In the past 10 years, 94 community radio broadcasting licences and 10 commercial licences have been awarded.
Eighty-eight percent of the rural population listens to the radio in a seven-day period, compared with 79% in 1994.
Television
South Africa has by far the largest television audience in Africa. There are more than four million licensed television households. The SABC’s national television network comprises four full-spectrum free-to-air channels, two satellite pay-TV channels aimed at audiences in Africa, and Bop-TV, which the SABC runs on behalf of the State. News bulletins are broadcast in all 11 official languages.
In October 1998, the country’s first privately owned free-to-air television channel, e.tv, started operations.
M-Net became South Africa’s first private subscription television service when it launched in 1986. Today, it has over 1,2 million subscribers in 49 countries across Africa. It features broad-ranging programming on its two terrestrial channels in South Africa. The main channel focuses on films, sport and general entertainment. The second channel offers sports programming and specialised community channels for specific communities.
Formed in 1995, MultiChoice Africa became the first African company on the continent to offer digital satellite broadcasting. Services include 55 video and 48 audio channels operating 24 hours a day.
Broadcasting
The independence of the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is guaranteed by legislation. The SABC is being corporatised and restructured to better fulfil its mandate.
Radio
The SABC’s national radio network comprises 20 stations with a combined daily audience of 20 million. Radio News has 13 editorial offices and 1 300 correspondents. Targeting the rest of Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, Channel Africa broadcasts in English, French, Kiswahili and Portuguese. In addition to the SABC, private radio stations licensed by the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), are:
Classic FM in Gauteng
Cape Talk MW in the Western Cape
P4, a jazz station in Cape Town
Kaya FM, a multilingual youth radio station in Gauteng
Y-FM, broadcasting in Johannesburg in isiZulu, Sesotho and English
Radio KFM
Radio Algoa
Radio Oranje
Highveld Stereo
Radio 702 in Gauteng
East Coast Radio
Radio Jacaranda
In the past 10 years, 94 community radio broadcasting licences and 10 commercial licences have been awarded.
Eighty-eight percent of the rural population listens to the radio in a seven-day period, compared with 79% in 1994.
Print
Technically, the local print media rate among the best in the world. However, the recent juniorisation of the newsroom has impacted negatively on most major publications.
South African newspapers and magazines are mainly organised into press groups, which have burgeoned as a result of take-overs. The major press groups are:
Independent Newspapers
Media24
CTP/Caxton Publishers and Printers
Johnnic Publishing
Other important media players include Primedia, Nail (New Africa Investments Limited) and Kagiso Media. Nail has unbundled into a commercial company (New Africa Capital) and a media company (New Africa Media).
Newspapers
In 2003, the newspaper market consisted of:
17 dailies
7 Sunday newspapers
24 weeklies
161 local or country newspapers, most of them weeklies
The only truly national newspapers are the Sunday newspapers, Sunday Times, Rapport, Sunday Independent, Sunday Sun and City Press.
Magazines
Magazine circulations declined by 2% in the second half of 2002 compared with the same period in 2001. There has, however, been an explosion in the number of titles in recent years, with the business-to-business magazine sector remaining larger than the consumer market. The major magazine publishers are:
Media24
Caxton
Johnnic
Highbury Monarch
Associated Magazines
Ramsay Son & Parker
Online media
Most of the bigger publications have websites. There are more than 600 ‘netzines’ in South Africa, with at least 16 of them specialising in daily news.
News agencies
The national news agency, the South African Press Association (SAPA), is a co-operative, non-profit organisation. The main foreign news agencies operating in South Africa are:
Reuters
Agence France-Press
Associated Press
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
United Press International
Media diversity
The independent Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) is jointly funded by government, the media and other donors. Headed by a nine-member board, the MDDA works to foster diversity, particularly in community and small commercial media, and to redress imbalances in the industry.
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