It owns the biggest commercial radio station in the country Metro FM Opposition politicians and civil society often criticise the SABC, accusing it of being a mouthpiece for whichever political party is in majority power, thus currently the ruling African National Congress; during the apartheid era it was accused of playing the same role for the National Party government.

[5] These merged into the African Broadcasting Company in 1927, owned by, I. W. Schlesinger, a wealthy businessman, but on 1 August 1936, they were sold to the SABC, established that year through an Act of Parliament.

[8] Programmes on the English and Afrikaans services mainly consisted of news; plays such as The Forsyte Saga, Story of an African Farm, and The Summons, written and produced in South Africa; serious talk shows; BBC radio shows; children's programmes, such as Sound Box; and light music featuring South African orchestras, arrangers, musicians and singers.

Criticism intensified around 2003–2005, when it was accused of a wide range of shortcomings including self-censorship, lack of objectivity and selective news coverage.

[22] On 27 March 2021, SABC and eMedia Investments expanded their partnership which allowed OpenView customers to receive 3 additional channels as well as their 19 radio stations.

[28] After losing many listeners with the handing over of its shortwave frequencies to Radio 5 and facing competition from television, it ceased broadcasting on 31 December 1985.

[30] Although this was because the BBC broadcasts were seen as giving a British viewpoint of current affairs, there were also concerns that the SABC service would become overly pro-government, or "Our Master's Voice".

Following the establishment of a republic and withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961, the Afrikaners' goal was to promote their culture and so, at first, the SABC's choice of popular music reflected the National Party government's initial conservatism, especially on the Afrikaans channel, with musicians such as Nico Carstens.

[42] In 1966 the SABC established an external service, known as Radio RSA, which broadcast in English, Swahili, French, Portuguese, Dutch and German.

90% of all music played on the broadcaster's 18 radio stations will be sourced from local artists with a focus on kwaito, jazz, reggae and gospel genres.

[48] The majority of acquired programming on South African television came from the United States, although owing to their opposition to apartheid, some production companies stopped selling programmes to the country.

[50] However, the Thames Television police drama series The Sweeney and Van der Valk, were briefly shown on SABC TV,[51] as was the original version of Thunderbirds.

[48] Many imported programmes were dubbed into Afrikaans and other indigenous languages, but in 1985, in order to accommodate English speakers, the SABC began to simulcast the original-language audio of series on an FM radio service called Radio 2000, allowing viewers to watch them in the original language; the first English-language series to be simulcast was Miami Vice.

[52] SABC TV also produced lavish musical shows featuring the most popular South African composers, solo musicians, bands and orchestras.

[53] With a limited budget, early programming aimed at children tended to be quite innovative, and programmes such as the Afrikaans-language puppet shows Haas Das se Nuus Kas and Oscar in Asblikfontein are still fondly remembered by many.

[58] In 1986, the SABC's monopoly on the television industry was challenged by the launch of a subscription-based service known as M-Net, which was backed by a consortium of newspaper publishers.

[76] They also launched their own catch-up and video on demand streaming service called SABC Plus on 17 November 2022, similar to BBC iPlayer, following two years of announcements.

However, Walvis Bay, an enclave of South Africa in Namibia until 1994, received the SABC's TV1 on a low-power repeater, which was broadcast live via Intelsat from 1986.

[86] These alongside e.tv were removed due to rights issues, in a situation similar to what would happen in Botswana ten years later, being replaced by other channels from the DStv bouquet, in August 2003,[87] causing uproar from subscribers.

[100] Rival broadcaster eTV publicly accused SABC of 'biased reporting' for failing to show the video footage of the humiliated deputy president.

[101] The SABC's government connections also came under scrutiny when, in April 2005, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was interviewed live by Zikalala, who is a former ANC political commissar.

[102] The interview was deemed by the public to have sidestepped 'critical issues', and to have avoided difficult questions regarding Mugabe's radical land-reform policies and human rights violations.

In May 2006, the SABC was accused of self-censorship when it decided not to air a documentary on South African president Thabo Mbeki, and in early June 2006, the news organisation requested that the producers (from Daylight Films) not speak about it.

[104] In June 2006, the International Federation of Journalists denounced the cancelling of the Thabo Mbeki documentary, citing "self-censorship" and "politically-influenced managers".

[106] A commission of inquiry was created by SABC CEO Dali Mpofu to investigate the allegations that individuals had been blacklisted at the behest of Zikalala.

Shortly before the ANC's 2012 elective conference in Mangaung, the board of the SABC handed control of news, television, radio and sport to COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The board's decision was interpreted by some at the SABC as a calculated attempt to ensure that an ANC faction close to President Jacob Zuma was given positive coverage.

In April 2014, journalists were warned by SABC chairperson, Ellen Zandile Tshabalala, that their phones were being wiretapped by the NIA, and reminded them to be loyal to the ANC ruling party.

In February 2015, the SABC was accused of censoring video and audio feeds of the State of the Nation address in Parliament, after opposition party EFF was forcefully ejected by armed plain-clothes policemen after interrupting the President's speech.

[116] In October 2016,[117] the South African parliament began investigating corruption allegations against SABC and its Group Executive of Corporate Affairs - Hlaudi Motsoeneng.