South Africans kiss TV licenses goodbye

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has revealed that South Africans have stopped paying for TV licenses.

This was revealed during a Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies briefing on 15 October 2024.

The SABC tabled its 2023/24 annual report in Parliament, revealing that the state-owned enterprise (SOE) is technically insolvent.

In the last financial year, the SABC reported a R505 million net loss from operating activities and a loss for the year of R192 million.

The broadcaster’s dismal financial state means it could not invest much in infrastructure and struggled to maintain a safe and healthy work environment.

The SABC also had to constrain investment in content. “We delayed plans to invest in fresh and compelling content,” SABC CFO Yolanda van Biljon said.

The company blamed the mass migration of audiences to global streaming platforms, which caused people to stop paying TV licence fees.

As a result, TV license fee compliance rates have plummeted to an all-time low of under 17%. “The non-compliance rate increased to 85.60%,” the SABC said.

TV licence evasion rate increased from 69% in 2019 to 86% in 2024, which shows that South Africans refuse to pay this fee.

What is telling is that government departments owe the SABC nearly R35 million in unpaid TV licence fees, showing that even the government would not pay this fee.

SABC chairman Khathutshelo Ramukumba said people do not pay their TV licenses because there are no consequences.

“If people do not pay their TV licence, there is nothing we can do to them. Therefore, only those who are patriotic pay their fees,” he said.

Ramukumba told parliamentary members that many government departments do not pay for their TV licences.

The SABC chairman wrote a letter to the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies to address the issue.

He admitted that the SABC must find a competitive and sustainable business model, which includes a different funding model.

The SABC currently has a public service mandate that forces it to produce content that is not commercially viable.

Ramukumba said advertisers and sponsors are not interested in the public service content they have to produce.

“There has to be a discussion about funding the public service mandate through state finances or other means,” he said.