Johannesburg -
Over 2 million people tuned into SABC 2 to watch veteran Afrikaans television news presenter Riaan Cruywagen read his final bulletin, it was reported on Saturday.
Beeld reported that 2,4 million people watched Cruywagen read his final bulletin on Monday night.
This was 700,000 more than the amount of people that watched the news on Friday night and 500,000 more than Tuesday night, according to the South African Advertising Research Foundation.
Professor Arrie de Beer of the University of Stellenbosch's journalism department told the publication he was surprised that more people did not tune in to watch Cruywagen's last bulletin.
“After the big fuss that was made from the last bulletin, a person would think it would be more,” he said.
Cruywagen, 67, has been a familiar face on SABC's Afrikaans news programme for the past 37 years.
He worked as a radio announcer for the first 10 years, and read his first TV bulletin on November 26, 1975.
Cruywagen said he served the public to the best of his ability.
He read his last news bulletin 37 years to the day after his TV news debut. - Sapa