20120807
AFP
South Africa's public broadcaster announced Monday it will launch a 24-hour news channel to compete with independent television.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) aims to bring content from around Africa to audiences, according to chief executive Lulama Makhobo.

"We are not seeing our... channel as being purely South African. We see it as a Pan African channel which will bring much more regularly news from the rest of the continent that affect South Africa," she was quoted as saying by the Sapa news agency.

News will be broadcast for six hours at the start, then grow to 24 hours.

The channel will be hosted by South African telecommunications company Multichoice's satellite television platform DSTV, which has a large presence in Africa.

"We are hoping we will be able to spread to the rest of the continent and anywhere else where Multichoice currently operates," said Makhobo.

It was unclear when the channel would launch.

Currently the country has one 24-hour news channel, eNews, which in recent years has branched out elsewhere in Africa.

Controversy has plagued public broadcaster SABC, with mismanagement and political interference fingered in audits and media reports.

In 2010 it scrapped its international channel, after it drew too few viewers. The channel never managed to strike a deal to air on DSTV in its two-year existence and instead opted for a lesser-known government-run platform.