Civil action group Outa has warned that the government’s three-year delay in finding an alternative to TV Licences in South Africa will likely put the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) into deeper financial peril.
Submitting its comments on the SABC Bill – which was opened for comment in November 2023 – Outa criticised the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies for not doing enough to ensure that the public broadcaster has a firm path forward.
The SABC has been mired in controversy and financial instability over the years, culminating in a massive R1.1 billion loss in its most recent financial year.
The broadcaster often approaches the government for multi-billion-rand bailouts to keep operating, all while one of its key revenue streams – TV licences – deteriorates.
It is estimated that over 9 million South Africans owe upwards of R44 billion in unpaid licence fees – which the SABC is unlikely to ever see.
While many had hoped that the SABC Bill would finally bring an answer to the broadcaster’s revenue and funding woes – particularly with an alternative model to the TV Licence – the bill does not lay out any specific plans or proposals.
Instead, it stipulates that the minister in charge must come up with a model within three years on how the SABC should be funded, effectively kicking the can down the road.
Outa said that “the three-year delay in developing a funding model, as proposed in the bill, could put the SABC in a more difficult financial position, as its finances are already on shaky ground”.
The three-year delay also means that the current TV Licence system will remain in place until an alternative is found.
“A long-term solution is of utmost importance and, while it is pleasing to see government consider an alternative funding model, we are concerned about how long it will take to identify and implement such an alternative,” Outa said,
“The SABC needs financial certainty for the interim period, which the bill does not provide.”
The group proposed that in the interim, the department and the SABC abandon the TV Licence regime, and adopt a ‘state grant’ system until a permanent alternative is found.
“We urge the committee to consider a regular annual state grant for the SABC’s public broadcasting services, instead of flogging the dead TV licence fee collection model. This would avoid the irregular and disastrous last-minute bailouts and provide a more stable revenue stream, particularly for the public broadcasting sector,” it said.
“This regular annual state grant could be seen as a grant in the furtherance of democracy.”
Outa also suggested cutting funds from wasteful programmes and diverting that money to the SABC – for example, the national and provincial legislatures could provide some funding in the furtherance of democracy.
“These institutions manage to provide hundreds of millions of rand to political parties to support democracy. Outa believes that some of these funds could be more usefully diverted to the SABC,” it said.
