SABC may use 'Tshwane' on TV

2005-06-09 21:59

Johannesburg - The broadcasting complaints commission (BCC) has ruled in favour of the SABC and its use of the word "Tshwane" in television broadcasts.

The commission found that the use of the word did not contravene the broadcasting code of conduct.

In response, the SABC said it had been vindicated in its opinion that there was nothing peculiar about the use of the word and that Pretoria had always been known as Tshwane.

The complaint against the SABC was brought before the commission by the Democratic Alliance, the Freedom Front Plus and lobby groups who argued the broadcaster was misleading the public as the name had not yet been made official.

"The SABC thought it well to use the name Tshwane and broadcast it as if it replaced the name Pretoria," said Anton Alberts, counsel for the Freedom Front Plus, to the five-member commission in May.

He argued that any change in the name of Pretoria should come only "from the highest level of legislative power of South Africa".

In the interest of fulfilling its mandate to broadcast in the public interest, the SABC should check whether the name changes it made in its reports were factually correct, Alberts submitted.

"I believe you can refer to a town or a city only if it is registered as the title deeds office.

'Used more and more out of spite'

"If it is not registered, it does not exist," added the Democratic Alliance's Desiree van der Walt.

"Pretoria is still Pretoria," she said.

It was as if, on learning of the complaints to the BCC, the SABC out of "spite" had purposefully begun to use the term Tshwane more and more, she charged.

The SABC, however, denied breaching the BCC code, maintaining that its use of the name Tshwane was not a distortion, an exaggeration or a misrepresentation.

There was nothing preventing the SABC from using the name before its approval by the minister of arts and culture, argued SABC counsel Omphemetse Mooki.

'Freedom of expression'

It was not unlawful, and consequently the BCC did not have authority to prevent the SABC from using the name Tshwane, he said, further arguing that use of the term fell within the right to freedom of expression.

"How is the use by the SABC of the name Tshwane in any way going to affect the decision-making by the SA Geographical Names Council?" asked Mooki.

It had not been suggested that the SABC was "bending the ears" of the council by indicating there was a preferred recommendation it should make, he submitted.

Mooki contended that the area of Pretoria also always had been known as Tshwane, but "simply by dint of history" had not enjoyed Pretoria's significance.

It was like any other place name which indigenous South Africans had always known by a particular name other than the formal, official one, he said in May.

- SAPA