As was the case in many other homes, Toppi Spring's family impatiently awaited the arrival of the colourful screen. The introduction of television in South Africa had been delayed because of an excessive preoccupation with notions of “extreme cultural protectionism” (Nixon, 1992). The cabinet, as it was constituted then, reasoned that in the absence of a national service provider, there was no means of countering international and culturally unprogressive transmissions beamed into South Africa via new satellite technologies. Ironically, the television they feared would later become a useful coercive instrument for advancing the dominance of the National Party (NP) and entrenching its political interests, albeit increasingly to its own detriment. O’Meara (1996, pp. 170–173) describes how the economy then was negatively affected by the “racially determined nature of consumer demand” and the failure to secure “products on the possibilities of economies of scale”.

Several other self-made crises were generated by the irrational use of live ammunition on thousands protesting against the imposition of Afrikaans-medium lessons, the senseless murder of Steve Biko in detention, and the inexplicable banning of 17 institutions—all occurring against the backdrop of a peaking recession. Paradoxically, the hegemony entrusted to protect Afrikaans culture became primary to its decline, as the Afrikaans language became synonymous with the detested Bantu Education, oppression and exclusion.

Despite unprecedented resistance to Afrikaans, what followed five years later after my first experience of television, was the entrenchment of the Bantustan policy which manifested itself in the physical separation of broadcasting content along racial lines.