The Role of South African Community Radio Stations in Promoting South African Indigenous Languages: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The review for this paper investigates the role played by community radio stations in promoting South African indigenous languages. This study includes a survey of literature that highlights the promotion of South African indigenous languages by community radio stations. Thus, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, ResearchGate, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Sabinet, and Taylor & Francis were used by the researchers to retrieve and analyse information from scholarly documents such as peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and reports, amongst others (n = 16) published between 2006 and 2023. Based on the main research questions raised by the researchers, significant themes were discovered and critically explored the role played by community radio stations in promoting South African indigenous languages. The study found that community radio stations in South Africa can help to create, manage, share, and most importantly promote indigenous languages and culture. This study recommends that the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) in partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) should establish a policy to promote programmes which broadcast full-time in the indigenous language.