SABC Radio Sales supports Afrikaans renaissance through Pendoring Awards sponsorship

"And this is Afrikaans today, the creative outlet for a new generation of musicians, artists, politicians and ordinary people who have outgrown the stereotypes of the past to emerge as a potent and powerful force in the transformation, economic and social upliftment of South Africa today with a broad appeal that transcends language, ethnic and cultural groups.”

So says Andrew Smythe, General Manager of Radio Sales at the SABC, which recently announced a title sponsorship of the Pendoring Awards, a competition that aims to acknowledge and reward excellence in the Afrikaans advertising space.

Calling for a more modern approach to creativity in advertising that accurately reflects the Afrikaner of today - a culturally sophisticated, economically powerful and highly influential component of cosmopolitan South African society, Smythe says the main aim behind the sponsorship of Pendoring is to garner creativity and support one of South Africa's most influential indigenous languages.

“The SABC is mandated to protect and support Afrikaans as one of the country's most widely-spoken languages, and aims to do so by encouraging it to grow and transform as a dynamic and evolving form of communication and cultural expression,” he says. “By throwing our support behind the Pendoring Awards, we hope to create more opportunities for advertisers, agencies and their creatives to produce original work in Afrikaans that's entertaining, informative, appealing and specifically relevant to Afrikaans speaking people.”

With the SABC's Radio Sonder Grense - better known by its acronym RSG - boasting a listenership of 1,834 million for past seven days, Smythe says marketers should be addressing the modernisation of Afrikaans in order to capture the attention of this economically and politically powerful audience in a culturally relevant way.

“The Afrikaans renaissance is the new ‘cool' - and it's coming through in literature and in music. A clear example of this is where Afrikaans is literally spearheading the drive in alternative and Rock, attracting a widely diverse audience from across all language and race groups,” he says.

Smythe emphasises that, in his view, it is simply not good enough to translate from English into Afrikaans and expect this increasingly sophisticated audience to respond favourably. “It's vitally important that Afrikaans advertising needs to reflect this new dynamism and capture the creativity and innovation that characterises Afrikaners and Afrikaans today.”