Funnily enough they planned a two-channel service a few years before the 1976 launch: TV1 and TV Bantu, the latter being the black channel. Alas for some reason they decided to launch just the English and Afrikaans service (SABC TV). On December 31, 1981 (according to some sources, others say it launched the following day) what was going to be TV Bantu launched as TV2/TV3.
Likewise the extant television channel toggled between English and Afrikaans until the 1996 reshuffling IIRC. Under this practice one part of the schedule was in English and the other in Afrikaans. This also affected the main news (8pm) which remained in that timeslot and format for twenty years. After the 1996 changes (a few years after the fall of Apartheid) the English news moved to SABC 3 (the former NNTV) and the Afrikaans news (there was a massive downsizing of Afrikaans programming) to SABC 2 (the former TV1 just to confuse you). And for a while in the early 2000s, SABC 3 didn't have the same graphics for its news bulletins unlike the other language bulletins airing on the two other channels.
Likewise the extant television channel toggled between English and Afrikaans until the 1996 reshuffling IIRC. Under this practice one part of the schedule was in English and the other in Afrikaans. This also affected the main news (8pm) which remained in that timeslot and format for twenty years. After the 1996 changes (a few years after the fall of Apartheid) the English news moved to SABC 3 (the former NNTV) and the Afrikaans news (there was a massive downsizing of Afrikaans programming) to SABC 2 (the former TV1 just to confuse you). And for a while in the early 2000s, SABC 3 didn't have the same graphics for its news bulletins unlike the other language bulletins airing on the two other channels.