SHAKA SHAKEOUT

Harmony Gold’s 10-hour miniseries, “Shaka Zulu,” may have created an uproar over its violent portrayal of blacks and production connections to the South Africa . . . and yet scores of independent stations apparently are going ahead with the program during the week of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and Black Pride Week.

A spokesman for Media, Marketing & Sales Organization, which is selling commercial time for the series, reports that only one station changed its scheduled King birthday showing because of the furor. Added a Harmony Gold spokesman: “We have seen just the opposite effect of what might have been expected.”

When the show premiered here and in San Francisco last month, black organizations picketed stations, urging a black boycott because of the violence and South African backing. The story of the rise and fall of the powerful Zulu chief, Shaka Zulu, it will air in 200-plus markets between now and April.