Controversy
At the time when the competition was announced, in June 2004, the SABC gave the assurance that the South African show would not ban certain political figures, as was the case in the German version which banned Nazis from the list. They soon came to regret their decision when the SABC became embroiled in a national controversy over the high rankings accorded to some South Africans who were less widely regarded as "great".
For example, Hendrik Verwoerd, the "Architect of Apartheid", ranked higher on the list than Albert Luthuli, South Africa's first Nobel Peace laureate, or Chris Hani, a famous anti-apartheid activist. Also present on the list was Eugène Terre'Blanche, the head of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging.
Despite the original definition by the SABC that nominees need not have been born in South Africa as long as they had lived in South Africa, some people questioned the inclusion of Hendrik Verwoerd, Mahatma Gandhi, Cecil John Rhodes for the very reason that they were not born in South Africa, and J. R. R. Tolkien because he was born to an English family in Bloemfontein, South Africa, which again returned to England when he was three years old. For example, Verwoerd was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, his father moving the family to South Africa when he was 2, and Rhodes was born in Bishop's Stortford in the UK, moving to a farm owned by his family in the Natal colony when he was 18.
Other controversial choices included an 11th placing for Hansie Cronje, the disgraced former captain of the South African cricket squad, who admitted to taking bribes to influence the outcome of test matches.
On 14 October the SABC announced that the show was being cancelled, leaving positions 2 to 10 still formally undecided.
Letter columns in some newspapers called the show a farce and used the term "whites with cellphones" to explain the presence of Hendrik Verwoerd and Eugène Terre'Blanche high on the rankings. This view was rebutted by Afrikaans singer-songwriter Steve Hofmeyr who pointed out that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, post-apartheid convicted fraudster, scored high on the list as well. According to Peter Matlare, CEO of the SABC, the show was stopped because "wider participation in the voting process" was necessary.
When the competition was announced, the SABC defined a Great South African as someone who contributed to the "country's life and development". When the show was stopped, the SABC claimed that their definition of a Great South African was actually someone who contributed to South Africa's development "and the promotion of humanity". and the fact that quite a few people on the list did not fit this description contributed to the decision to stop the show.
Read more about this topic: Great South Africans (television Series)
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