Vhembe Music Association welcomes SABC's 90% rule

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     Music

The Vhembe Music Association praised the SABC’s decision to play 90% local content across its 18 radio stations.

The secretary of the association, Mr Tshidino Ndou, said the association was surprised that critics had already started slamming the SABC's chief operations officer, Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng, for implementing this new rule. “As local artists, we see this policy as a great move that will help in the promotion and improvement of our local music industry,” he said.

According to Motsoeneng’s statement, all the SABC radio stations are expected to abide by the new rule. He repeated the very statement during Phalaphala FM's re-branding event last Wednesday.

Tshidino said that people who criticised Motsoaneng's move for giving local music fair airplay, were only sending out a wrong message that most Africans didn't believe in themselves. “Hlaudi appeals to South Africans to start believing in themselves and local talents,” Ndou said.

Meanwhile, Motsoeneng said that the new policy would ensure that the government and people were supporting South African artists, which showed that South Africans had a high self-esteem as a nation.

Tshidino told Limpopo Mirror that when the 90% rule was implemented, the association had noticed changes on Phalaphala FM programmes. “We are excited that Phalaphala FM took the 90% policy further by playing almost 100% of Tshivenda music,” he said.

Ndou indicated that the 90% decision came at a time when the music association was two months old. “Furthermore, I would like to make a serious call to my fellow artists to produce quality content that will not disappoint the SABC and listeners out there,” he said. “It’s about time that local musicians take music seriously and start producing original and quality content that people can be proud of. Let’s take advantage of this 90% rule.”

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.