A South African Censorship History Timeline 1913 ~ 20071913
The Local Censorship Ordinance Act of 1913 is promulgated.
1931
The National Censorship Act of 1931 is passed into law which demands that “all cinematographic material be cleared before exhibition”.
1934
The SA Censorship Board is established.
1951
Zoltan Korda’s locally filmed “Cry The Beloved Country” is temporarily banned due to Ministerial complaints about its’ content.
1951
Anna Sewell’s classic novel “Black Beauty” is banned by the Censors due to its’ title alone.
1963
The SA Publications Control Board (PCB) is established with the 80 year old Professor Gerrit Dekker as its’ head, who later retires, and Adv. Jannie Kruger is appointed in his place. Professor T T Cloete, one of SA’s foremost writers and poets is appointed a censor.
1963
Ralph Nelson’s “Lillies of The Field” with Sidney Poitier is banned and remains so, even after Poitier is awarded the Best Actor Oscar for his role in this charming film. It is later unbanned in 1973.
1964
Cy Endfield’s “Zulu” with Sir Stanley Baker and Sir Michael Caine is banned for screening to “natives” for fear that it might “incite them to violence”.
1965
Elmo de Witt’s “Debbie” runs the censorship gauntlet as the PCB impose first one, then another high age restriction on this simple tale of a naïve farm girl falling pregnant in Pretoria. Kruger’s comment on the film is that “No Afrikaans girl ever gets pregnant out of wedlock”. The film is available on tape today with no age restriction at all.
1965
The PCB orders all foreign embassies in SA to submit all films in their posession to it for scrutiny, and possible censorship and/or banning.
1965
Guy Green’s “A Patch Of Blue” is banned for daring to show relationships across the colour line ~ in this case, the unconditional love of a blind white girl for a person of colour who loves her in return. This film continued the vogue of censoring or banning almost all of the films that Sidney Poitier starred in.
1965
Sidney Lumet’s “The Pawnbroker” is banned ~ the reason given by the PCB is that “it is offensive to see a “Bantu” female baring her breasts for a white man”.
1968
Three of Sidney Poitier’s films ~ “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, “In The Heat Of The Night” and “To Sir, With Love” are banned by the PCB this year. Other films banned include “The Graduate”, “Blow Up”, “Finian’s Rainbow, “Witchfinder General” and “Bonnie and Clyde” ~ all internationally acclaimed and award-winning films which South Africans were not permitted to see.
1968
Jans Rautenbach’s “Die Kandidaat” (SA’s first political thriller) is released only after the Security Police seize a copy of it to check if cuts ordered by the PCB were effected.
1969
The 1963 Publications and Entertaiments Act is amended.
1970
Ken Russell’s “Women In Love” is heavily cut and Martin Ritt’s “The Great White Hope” is banned for its’ depiction of love across the colour bar.
1970
Mario Schiess’ “Onwettige Huwelik” is almost banned this year, with the head of the PCB stating that the film is undesirable due to the fact that “there has never been, nor will there ever be an unlawful marriage in SA”.
1970
The PCB’s annual report states that since its’ inception, 1600 films have been severely cut and 300 films banned.
1971
The harsh brand of SA censorship is debated both in Parliament and in the media this year. Ken Russell’s “The Devils” and Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” are both banned as are “The Immortal Story”, “Billy Jack”, “Soldier Blue” and “The Dunwich Horror”, among others.
1972
Peter Henkel’s “Three Bullets For A Long Gun” earns itself the dubious homour of becoming the first SA film to be banned.
1972
Uncensored in flight films are screened on all of SA’s overseas flights, leading to fits of apoplexy at the PCB who have no jurisdiction over this. In the same year, Dr Connie Mulder states that “the powers of the PCB will be increased if need be……………South Africa must not become the dumping ground for money hungry pornographers”.
1973
The interracial sex scenes between Roger Moore and Gloria Hendry in Guy Hamilton’s James Bond thriller “Live & Let Die” are cut from the SA release print. Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango In Paris” is banned in SA, but released uncut at a casino in Swaziland ~ Dr Connie Mulder threatens “serious action” against those who would dare cross the border to view this film.
1973
Films banned this year include “Shaft In Africa”, “The Wicker Man”and “The Big Boss”, the latter film starring Bruce Lee.
1973
PCB chief Jannie Kruger denies that censorship exists in any form in SA ~ he is quoted as saying that “SA has no censorship system of any kind, we merely have a system of publications control”.
1974
Ralph Nelson’s anti~SA film “The Wilby Conspiracy” starring Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine (filmed in Kenya with Nairobi substituting for Johannesburg) is banned, as are “The Exorcist”, “Enter The Dragon”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Blazing Saddles”.
1974
SA filmmaker Sven Persson’s “Land Apart”is banned and is almost totally re-shot, finally finding release under the title “The South Africans”.
1974
The 1974 Publications and Entertainments Act is promulgated in Parliament and remains in force until 1994.
1974
The Publications Appeal Board (PAB) is established this year ~ in theory, its’ establishment creates a higher court of appeal by filmmakers and distributors to contact if their films were banned or cut: in reality, it is just another censor board with more frightening powers than the PCB.
1975
Among the films banned this year, one finds “The Whispering Death”, “The Devil’s Rain”, “Race With The Devil” and “The Trial Of Billy Jack”. Manie Van Rensburg’s local political comedy “Die Square” is banned
1976
The PCB orders that no less than 30 cuts be made to the award-winning film “All The President’s Men” but has to retreat from this decision when the film’s producer and star Robert Redford angrily attacks them, threatening to lead a boycott against SA exhibition of USA films. The film is released uncut.
1976
Judge J H “Lammie” Snyman is appointed head of the PAB this year ~ heralding a new period in censorship history as films, books, magazines and music are banned left, right and centre, sometimes without reason.
1976
USA filmmaker Richard Donner takes the Censor Board to task this year over the huge number of cuts ordered to his film “The Omen”.
1977
Moustapha Akhad’s “Mohammed Messenger Of God” and Richard Brooks’ “Looking For Mr Goodbar” are banned.
1977
A legal clause stating that “it is an offence to prejudice, influence or anticipate the decisions of the Publications Directorate” is added to the Publications and Entertainments Act this year. Ripples of horror run through the government this year as polls indicate that the majority of South Africans wish cinemas to be open on Sundays.
1978
Jack Gold’s “The Medusa Touch” is the film which causes most problems for the censors this year with its’ depiction of a homicidal maniac (Richard Burton) who kills by thought and who is seen to be immortal even after he is supposedly been killed. The PCB states that the film would only be released if the final scene “where evil is seen to triumph” is cut, but the film is released uncut, albeit with a very high age restriction.
1979
James Fargo’s locally filmed “Game For Vultures” is banned this year as “its’ screening might endanger the security of the State”.
1980
Judge J H Snyman retires this year and Professor Kobus van Rooyen is appointed in his place. Snyman’s last act as Chief Censor is to ban the Pink Floyd album “The Wall”. “Dressed To Kill” and “Friday The 13th” are also banned.
1981
The films “The Howling” and the locally filmed “The Grass Is Singing” are banned.
1982
The Department of Home Affairs announces this year that “South Africa has the strictest censorship system in the world”.
1983
Roger Spottiswoode’s “Under Fire”is banned ~ the excuse given is that “the film might sow the seeds of revolution in South Africa”.
1984
The Directorate of Publications orders that all video distribution slipsheets be submitted to them for possible censorship before usage.
1985
The 1974 Publications and Entertainments Act is amended.
1986
ACTAG (the Anti-Censorship Action Group) is formed and there is a serious request from the head of the Islamic Council in SA to the PCB to request that the Bible be banned, due to the “lurid and pornographic” passages in the Song of Solomon.
1986
Gray Hofmeyr’s locally filmed “Jock of The Bushveld” is banned in Zimbabwe.
1987
A new age restriction for films rears its’ head this year as Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” is released uncut, but with a no persons 2 to 21 age restriction on it.
1988
Sir Richard Attenborough’s controversial “Cry Freedom” is passed by the PCB but is later seized by the Security Police.
1988
SA filmmakers Darrell Roodt’s “The Stick” and Andrew Worsdale’s “Shot Down” are banned this year and the Publications and Entertaiments Act is amended. Chris Menges’ anti-South African film “A World Apart” (based on lives of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, starring Barbara Hershey and Jeroen Krabbe) is also banned.
1989
Cedric Sundstrom’s “The Shadowed Mind” and Euzhan Palcy’s “A Dry, White Season” are banned this year while the anti-South African action comedy “Lethal Weapon 2” (in which South African diplomats are portrayed as gun runners, Krugerrand smugglers and killers) is released uncut here and becomes the box-office hit of the year.
1989
Professor Kobus Van Rooyen resigns as the head of the PAB after the fracas over the seizing of “Cry Freedom” ~ unconfirmed reports at the time suggested that his house was also fire-bombed and his life threatened.
1989
Martin Scorsese’s controversial “The Last Temptation of Christ” is banned.
1990
Advocate Louis Pienaar replaces Professor Kobus van Rooyen as the PAB head this year but resigns after a period of six months.
1991
Professor Dan Morkel is appointed the new head of the PAB.
1992
Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct” is released uncut in South Africa this year ~ this act immediately causes a relaxation of the censorship laws in this country.
1993
The Weekly Mail Film Festival highlights SA censorship this year at its’ “Limits Of Liberty” festival and the PCB head, Dr Abraham Coetzee is a guest speaker who was booed off the stage.
1993
Despite a relaxation of the oppressive censorship laws, several films are banned for television screenings, including the local productions “The Stick”, “Place of Weeping” and “Zulu”.
1994
The Freedom of Expression Institute is established ~ an amalgamation of ACTAG and the Campaign For Open Media.
1994
Ex PAB chief Dr Kobus van Rooyen urges that the 20 year old Publications and Entertainments Act either be revised or scrapped altogether.
1994
As the era of democracy dawns in SA, the newly appointed Minister Of Home Affairs, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi states in Parliament that “never again in this country will anyone decide what any rational and intelligent beings may or may not watch, read or hear”.
1995
The 1994 Publications and Entertainments Bill is gazetted this year and the activities of the PCB and the PAB are slowly wound down.
1995
The Arts and Culture Task Group’s report is submitted to the GNU this year, advising that the old censorship system be scrapped entirely but that a new, representative board be appointed in its’ place.
1996
In a landmark ruling, the SA Supreme Court states that the possession of so-called “pornographic” books, magazines, films and videos is no longer illegal.
1997
Much of the once banned and undesirable films are released to home video, such as the long banned “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “A Clockwork Orange”
1999
The SA Censor Board arises in a new guise this year in a more representative and more public face as the “Film and Publications Board” (FPB)
2003
The 1994 Film and Publications Act is amended this year (with particular relevance to making the production, possession and selling of child pornography illegal) and the FPB makes its’ own advert to be used in cinemas and VHS/DVD rentals, using footage and audio from the eerie film “The Others”, starring Nicole Kidman. The tagline on the adverts is: “The effect lasts long after the film is over. Age restrictions are there for a reason. We inform, you choose.”
2005
The Department of Home Affairs threatens to impose censorship on all television programmes screened in SA.
2006
Rumours circulate in the media that a return to the days of pre-transmission and publication censorship of all media by Government is imminent.
2007
In addition to the current censor warnings (S, L, V, P, N) on film posters and video slipsheets, the FPB announces a new symbol, that of B, for films which contain blasphemy. The Film and Publications Act is also amended, this time with input from the public.