Immediate reform needed to fix SABC’s TV licence crisis
Key topics
- TV licence avoidance surged to 86% in 2024, costing the SABC R4.3 billion.
- Proposed alternatives include household levies and device-based taxes.
- Minister Malatsi pushes urgent reform amid political backlash and delays.
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South Africans and the country's public broadcaster have wanted to say goodbye to the problematic TV licence scheme for several years, with many households avoiding paying their fees.
The payment of TV licences is a legal requirement for South Africans who own a television set, and a silent revolt against the scheme has contributed to the SABC's dire financial situation.
Section 27 of the Broadcasting Act No.4 of 1999 mandates the payment of TV licence fees. Failure to pay the fees can result in a fine not exceeding R500, imprisonment not exceeding six months, or a combination of the two.
While these are the legislated punishments for failing to pay fees, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) previously told MyBroadband that taking non-paying customers to court would be too expensive and, ultimately, not worth it for the SABC.
The threat of punishment hasn't deterred TV licence holders from avoiding payment either.
The SABC reports on the proportion of TV licence holders who paid their fees in their annual financial results each year, and the avoidance rate has skyrocketed in the past decade.
TV licence avoidance rates in the country from 2019 to 2024 were as follows:
- 2019 — 69%
- 2020 — 81%
- 2021 — 82%
- 2022 — 82%
- 2023 — 84%
- 2024 — 86%
To give an idea of the impact TV licence avoidance has on the public broadcaster, it only managed to collect around R726 million in TV licence fees in the 2023/24 financial year.
Considering it had billed R5 billion in TV licence fees, avoidance meant the SABC lost out on nearly R4.3 billion in revenue.
Several alternatives to the TV licence scheme have been proposed in recent years.
Despite the public broadcaster's deep financial trouble, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies set a three-year timeline to rework the funding scheme in the controversial SABC Bill.
Published by former minister Mondli Gungubele in October 2023, several industry stakeholders criticised the SABC Bill for essentially kicking the can down the road.
Current Communications Minister Solly Malatsi took issue with the bill, describing it as "fundamentally flawed," and used his discretionary powers as Minister to cancel and withdraw it before its second reading in Parliament.
"This approach does not meet the urgency required to stabilise the broadcaster and risks perpetuating an outdated licensing structure that will not provide the SABC with the necessary resources to fulfil its mandate," the Minister said.
While the Minister's decision caused him a major headache due to the political backlash from his ANC contemporaries across the aisle, he is sticking to his guns.
Malatsi said he is still waiting for Parliamentary speaker Thoko Didiza to act on the withdrawal.
TV licence alternatives
While it had been proposed in the past, the SABC's head of policy and regulatory affairs, Philly Moilwa, presented the idea of a household levy before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies.
This would work similarly to Germany's Rundfunkbeitrag, which imposes a TV tax of €18.36 (R337) per household per month.
Moilwa argued that access to SABC content has expanded to multiple devices and isn't only available on television sets anymore, necessitating a household levy.
The SABC added that the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and DStv owner MultiChoice must help collect the tax.
However, MultiChoice subsequently told MyBroadband that it firmly opposes any proposal for it to collect TV licence fees on behalf of the SABC.
Another option that Media Monitoring Africa's William Bird recently raised again was putting a levy on all devices that can watch content, including smartphones.
In August 2024, Malatsi told MyBroadband that he had some "wild ideas" about improving the public broadcaster's financial situation.
"These are just ideas. This is not a policy decision, so it mustn't come across like it's a policy announcement," he said.
Malatsi said the government already has systems in place to collect outstanding money from citizens.
"For instance, you can't renew your driver's licence if you have outstanding fines and an enforcement order against you," he explained.
"If you've got multiple vehicles, you can't renew the one without settling fines on the other, because those things are coordinated and integrated with eNatis."
The Minister said there are opportunities to interlink the SABC's TV licence to other licence fees to ensure it is collected.
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This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission