Rural South African get first TV broadcasts for World Cup

Printer Friendly

Share

Text Size

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 24, 2008 (AFP) - Nearly 85,000 South Africans in the remote Kgalagadi region will receive their first television broadcasts Saturday, as the government boosts its networks' coverage for the World Cup.

"The minister of communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri will for the first time, switch on the newly installed low-power transmitters that will extend television services" to Kgaladadi, the government said in a statement.

Kgalagadi, near the border with Namibia and Botswana, is home to many Bushmen, descendents of the first people to live in southern Africa.

Communities in the region from Saturday will be able to watch South Africa's three public television stations and receive radio stations.

"This means that come 2010, the people of these afore-mentioned areas will be able to watch the World Cup on television and listen to commentaries on radio," the statement said.

Other parts of rural South Africa remain without television coverage, but the government plans to boost its TV signals before 2010 so that people will not have to travel great distances to watch the first World Cup held in Africa.

South Africa only introduced national television in 1976. The white-minority apartheid government had feared that television would weaken its control over society.