The withdrawal of the SABC Bill by Minister Solly Malatsi has ignited a political standoff in South Africa. Malatsi deemed the bill flawed, citing its excessive ministerial control over the SABC board and a delayed funding model. His decision, supported by civil society groups, has drawn sharp criticism from the ANC, which may introduce its own bill to reinstate control. This highlights deeper issues in South Africa’s broadcasting policy, currently outdated and unresolved.
Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.
The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here.
By John Matisonn ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
DA Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi’s decision to withdraw the SABC Bill has sparked a DA-ANC political row in the GNU over a flawed bill that was never conceived within the framework of a completed broadcasting policy document.
The minister has decided to withdraw the Bill, believing it is “totally flawed”, does not address the funding model of the public broadcaster and assigns too much power to the minister in appointing board members. The ANC has threatened to bring a “private members’ bill” if he does not reinstate it.
On the DA side, MP Tsholofelo Bodlani endorsed the decision while on the ANC side, Malatsi’s own deputy minister and immediate ministerial predecessor, Mondli Gungubele, criticised the decision, which is in effect a repudiation of his own previous work.
The Bill also separates the SABC into two companies, one commercial and the other a public broadcaster. Gungubele said the potential lack of independence in the appointment of the commercial company was not insurmountable and could have been remedied through an amendment by the parliamentary committee.
And the ANC Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, Khusela Sangoni Diko, said of the decision that it was “no exaggeration to say it would sound the death knell for the South African Broadcasting Corporation.”
What is the real story?
Gungubele initially introduced the bill in October 2023 to replace the outdated Broadcasting Act of 1999. It has at least three controversial components: its sets a three-year process to find a funding model, it replaces the TV licence fee with a household levy, and it splits the SABC into two companies, one commercial and one public broadcaster.
The commercial one would be governed by a board chosen by the Minister, at the time a position safely in ANC hands. It appears to give the Minister powers to remove a member of the board provided the removal is not related to broadcasting content, veto powers over the appointment of an interim board, and control of the remuneration of the SABC CEO and the CFO.
But this has obscured the deeper problem with not only the bill but the entire process of misdirection that goes back at least a decade, and more likely all the way back to the early 2000s.
A policy process was begun in 2016 and continued by a succession of ministers who were often replaced after less than a year in office. It’s called the White Paper on Audio and Audiovisual Policy.
That process was not been finalised, and many of its features were widely rejected in the broadcasting industry. Industry experts complain that the SABC Bill in fact contradicts the latest policy draft. The Bill also takes no account of the fact that large but unquantified number of South African households have lost access to TV at home because of the poor planning of digital migration.
Malatsi withdrew the Bill after consultation, on the grounds that three years was too long to find a funding model, and that he did not believe a Minister should have power over the board appointments of a media company.
Both criticisms have wide support from civil society organisations, including Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), and AfriForum, as well as from major broadcasters like MultiChoice and eMedia.
In his criticism of his boss’s decision, Gungubele said on social media:
“What is at issue here is the prolonged financial stress of the entity and the need to capacitate it to be transformative and developmental. “Mere amendment of the bill within the parliamentary processes is ok.”
The DA’s Bodlani commended Malatsi “for relinquishing executive powers that would have extended overreach into the SABC — a step that few ministers would be willing to take,” in a statement.
The SABC has made substantially progress in cutting its annual loss from more than R1billion to R192m in 2023/2024, and achieving its first unqualified audit in nine years. Nevertheless, the SABC CFO described it as still technically insolvent.
Diko said that the committee has been at pains to put in place a fast-tracked process to finalise the SABC Bill.
She said that the public broadcaster could not be allowed to fail because its demise would spell “unmitigated disaster” for SENTECH, the country’s signal distributor, with a ripple effect to over 130 community radio stations, several private broadcasters including commercial radio and TV stations and ICT service providers.
She suggested that if the minister did not change his mind, “individual members of the committee or the committee itself” would have no option but to consider introducing a committee or Private Members’ Bill in the National Assembly.
But the biggest problem with the broadcasting sector was not mentioned by any of the politicians — the fact that a government broadcasting policy has not been agreed.
“The process is nowhere near finished and yet we already have a Bill before Parliament that is entirely at odds with many of the substantive policy proposals currently being put forward by the very same ministry,” said the SOS Coalition..
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse has recommended that the SABC receive annual funding directly from the National Treasury to support its public broadcasting duties. On the other hand, the Free Market Foundation advocated privatising the broadcaster, allowing it to compete by offering more attractive programming options.
But 24-hour radio services in many of the 11 official languages do not attract sufficient advertising revenue to manage without government support or cross-subsidisation with the SABC’s profitable stations.
Read also:
