South Africans share favourite TV classics as DStv launches new 30 Seconds edition

South Africans have been taking a nostalgic trip down memory lane, sharing their favourite local TV shows and films – from Dokter Dokter to Orkney Snork Nie – as a new edition of the iconic board game 30 Seconds hits the scene.

The conversation was sparked by the launch of a special 30th birthday edition of 30 Seconds, created in partnership with DStv. The limited release is packed with South African pop culture, sport, music and television references from 1995 to today.

It also prompted many to rediscover that 30 Seconds is, in fact, a proudly South African creation.

“I learned just this week that 30 Seconds is a South African creation. I had just always assumed it was an international game,” said CapeTalk’s Pippa Hudson.

The game was created by Calie Esterhuyse in the late 1990s while on holiday in South Africa with friends and family.

Viewers revisit beloved local TV shows

Listeners flooded in with messages about the shows that shaped their childhoods.

One of them recalled the Afrikaans medical comedy Dokter Dokter as a family favourite.

“My favourite TV show was Dokter Dokter. It was very funny, and the only Afrikaans show my whole family watched together. My mom, who was a nurse, told us a lot of the funny sequences happened in her hospital.”

Others remembered The Villagers, described by one listener as ‘a forerunner for many series and the soaps which we never experienced in South Africa at the time.

Classic characters like Gordon Mulholland’s Mind Boss and Clive Scott’s Ted Dixon were mentioned as instantly recognisable figures from early South African television.

Another listener said they were ‘a devout Isidingo fan’, while Vetkoek Paleis, Orkney Snork Nie, Isibaya, Recipes for Love and Murder and The Gods Must Be Crazy also received nods.

A proudly South African game

The on-air discussion quickly turned into a live demonstration of the new DStv edition of 30 Seconds, with media personalities and pop culture experts teaming up to battle it out under the pressure of the 30-second clock.

The limited edition set includes 2,400 new clues heavily weighted towards South African content.

“You cannot buy this off the shelf in a store,” listeners were told. “It is only available to win via the DStv Rewards page on the MyDStv app.”

The new release celebrates DStv’s 30th anniversary and taps into the shared cultural references that have defined South African households over the past three decades.

Even international guests are catching on.

“A bunch of Australians saying, ‘What is this game?’” the host laughed. “All the South Africans at the table went, ‘Duh, it’s 30 Seconds.’ We did not realise that it was a South African thing.”

As listeners continue to reminisce about childhood favourites like Liewe Heksie, Pumpkin Patch and Wielie Walie, one thing is clear: local storytelling – whether on screen or around a board game – remains a powerful thread in South Africa’s shared cultural fabric.

For more details, listen to Hudson using the audio player below: