THEAPARTHEIDERA
woerd even tried to prohibit Blacks from attending church services in white
areas and moderated his demands only when Geoffrey Clayton, Anglican
archbishop of Cape Town, died of a heart attack after signing a letter saying
he could not counsel members of his church to obey such legislation.P
The government also established tight controls over the communica-
tions media. The South African Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC), a public
corporation
controlled by government appointees, had a monopoly on
radio broadcasting and on television when it began to operate in South
Africa in 1976. Chaired by Piet J. Meyer, who had been interned as an
Ossewa Brandwag leader during World War II, the SABC became an instru-
ment of official propaganda.
Other government-appointed
bodies exer-
cised wide powers of censorship. In 1977, for example, they banned 1,246
publications, 41 periodicals, and 44 films. Most of those banned publica-
tions were books and pamphlets dealing with such radical opposition
movements as the African National Congress, so that it became difficult for
South Africans to find out what opposition movements were doing and
thinking.s"
The impact of the Nationalist regime on the mentality of Afrikaners was