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Lesedi

South Africa's SABC Sesotho-language radio station serves millions of Sotho-speaking South Africans with contemporary music, news in their mother tongue, and the rich cultural programming that makes Lesedi FM one of the country's most important voices for linguistic and cultural preservation.

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COUNTRY South Africa

Lesedi FM is a SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) radio station that broadcasts primarily in Sesotho — one of South Africa's eleven official languages — serving the Sotho-speaking communities of the Free State, Gauteng, and Northern Cape provinces. As one of SABC's regional language stations, Lesedi FM plays a crucial role in ensuring that South Africa's linguistic diversity is reflected in its broadcast media, providing news, entertainment, and cultural programming for a speech community of several million people.

What You Will Hear

Contemporary South African music — Afropop, kwaito, amapiano, and South African soul — features alongside Sesotho-language music that celebrates the culture and traditions of the Sotho people. News and current affairs programming in Sesotho keeps listeners informed on South African national and provincial affairs, while cultural programming explores Sotho heritage, folklore, and the living traditions of this ancient language group. The station balances modernity with cultural rootedness in a way that reflects post-apartheid South Africa's ongoing negotiation between tradition and transformation.

Who Is This Station For?

Lesedi FM serves Sesotho-speaking South Africans both in the station's primary broadcasting area and across the country, including the large Sotho-speaking communities in Gauteng's industrial cities. It is particularly valued as a source of news and cultural programming in listeners' mother tongue in a media landscape still dominated by English and Afrikaans.

About Sesotho and South Africa's Language Diversity

South Africa's eleven official languages represent one of the most linguistically diverse national constitutions in the world, reflecting a commitment to linguistic justice that emerged from the struggles against apartheid — a system that weaponized language to divide and control. SABC's network of regional language stations was established to honor this linguistic diversity by ensuring that all major South African language communities have access to quality broadcast media in their own languages. Lesedi FM is one of the most successful examples of this commitment in practice.