By Craig McKune
A quarter of Intercape's passengers complain about its "godly", "anti-Darwinian" onboard entertainment, but the long-haul bus operator stands by its message.
"We're a godly company and we believe we need to show Christian-based entertainment," company spokesperson Adre Zandberg said on Thursday.
Peet Louw, director of Humble Pie Entertainment, which manages Intercape's onboard entertainment, said an internal census showed 25 percent of the mainliner's passengers "are not 100 percent happy". But he said they had only heard "about three complaints out of 150 000 customers", and they were catering for the country's 80 percent who claim to be Christian.
Louw said Humble Pie manages the content for Intercape's 65 buses, which transport between 60 000 and 100 000 passengers a month.
The entertainment is played on the buses' television screens with the sound broadcast from speakers which passengers cannot control, he said.
Speaking on CapeTalk radio on Thursday, one caller described how, on her trip to Port Elizabeth and back, she was offended by the "gospel" content she was forced to watch. But both Zandberg and Louw stood by what they called "simply good clean 'Intertainment' with a message".
"If we get a few complaints from other religions, we don't care about them. They don't have to travel Intercape if they don't want to," said Louw.
The programming avoided sexually suggestive or violent content and focused on family values, he said.
"We're not forcing anything down anybody's throat in the same way that Nu Metro and Ster Kinekor are; not forcing the occult, sex or witchcraft. You can decide for yourself whether or not you accept it."
He said the programming was "unashamedly" anti-evolution.
"Most of those complaints you mention are from evolutionists, but we of course know there is no proof for evolution. The origin of species is really a lie," he said.
Intercape's programming offered documentary-style content, wildlife features from a creationist standpoint, movies, music videos and advertising.
Intercape passengers arriving in Cape Town on Thursday said they had watched only comedies on the screens and had no complaints.
Two Intercape employees, however, said the DVDs were usually shown "because our boss is Christian".
Although Christian, they did not agree with the programmes. "A lot of our customers are Muslim or Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist. What about them?"
Zandberg said the programming had been shown for about six months, although they used to show Christian DVDs before that.