History of Dragon Ball in South Africa

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I've noticed theres been a lack of detailed information on this forum regarding Dragon Ball's broadcasts in South Africa, so like my threads on other regions I'll cover series by series what I've been able to find out. Any additions of course would be great.

When it comes to the franchise on South African TV, streaming and theatres thus far heres what I've been able to gather:

DRAGON BALL Z

2002-2005: Dragon Ball Z arrived in South Africa June 3, 2002 on SABC2 with the Funimation dub and ran until late 2004 or early 2005 Mondays to Fridays with repeats on weekends. 276 episodes were aired.
2009-2012: Dragon Ball Z reruns on SABC2.
2016-2018: Dragon Ball Z likely premiered on Startimes Kungfu Channel sometime after original Dragon Ball concluded in November or December 2016. The Funimation dub was aired.

DRAGON BALL

2004: Dragon Ball premiered January 14, 2004 on SABC2 airing Mondays-Fridays with the Funimation dub.
2008-2009: Dragon Ball was possibly rerun on SABC2.
2016: Dragon Ball began airing on StarTimes Kungfu Channel February 18, 2016 with the Mandarin dub from mainland China, although seemingly at one point it switched to the Funimation dub.

DRAGON BALL GT

2004-2005: Dragon Ball GT's debut on SABC2 in South Africa was January 3, 2005. Episodes were shown Monday-Friday and rerun at weekends. Dragon Ball GT was shown as part of the SABC Tube programming block. The Funimation dub was aired.
2015-2016: Dragon Ball GT reruns on SABC2.

DRAGON BALL KAI

2012-2020: Dragon Ball Kai arrived on SABC2 in January 2012 with the edited Funimation dub as seen on Nicktoons in the USA. Dragon Ball Kai: The Final Chapters followed between December 2019 and August 2020 on the same channel using Funimation's uncut dub.

DRAGON BALL SUPER

2017-2022: Dragon Ball Super started airing on Toonami Africa around October or November of 2017 and aired it up until at least 2021 when the channel was rebranded to Toonami: Home of Superheroes. Cartoon Network South Africa began airing the show with a sneak peak on March 7, 2020 and a general premier on March 16th the same year. In a return to tradition Dragon Ball Super's SABC2 debut followed on March 4, 2022.
2024: Dragon Ball Super began airing on Startimes Kungfu Channel on July 16, 2024.

DRAGON BALL DAIMA

2024-2026: Crunchyroll streamed Dragon Ball Daima both subbed and dubbed in South Africa. The English subbed release came on October 11, 2024. Crunchyroll then began streaming their English dub of Dragon Ball Daima January 10, 2025 with new episodes dropping weekly.

DRAGON BALL MOVIES

2009: Dragonball: Evolution got theatrical screenings in South Africa on April 10, 2009.
2022: Dragon Ball Super : Super Hero got theatrical screenings on August 19, 2022.

Thanks goes out to:

• NitroEX and FruPunRounin for information regarding the South African broadcasts.
• The National Library of South Africa for locating the earliest mentions of the various Dragon Ball series from TV listings in the Cape Times.