Minister reveals what digital TV set-top box installers are paid

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South Africa's digital migration — how much set-top box installers are paid

The South African government is paying appointed VAT-registered digital TV set-top box installers R450 per installation, while non-VAT-registered installers get R390.

In his response to parliamentary questions from Democratic Alliance MP Tsholofelo Motshidi-Bodlani, communications minister Mondli Gungubele also revealed the names of appointed installers.
 
Red Flag. Why are non vat registered installers allowed to be on the list? Nobody likes vat, but I'm in business and it's a real challenge competing with non vat registered competitors. And in this instance, the business is with government!
 
FlashSA said:
Red Flag. Why are non vat registered installers allowed to be on the list? Nobody likes vat, but I'm in business and it's a real challenge competing with non vat registered competitors. And in this instance, the business is with government!
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Requirement to register for VAT is if your business does turnover of more than R1M annually IIRC.

So it's perfectly legal to operate in this way. And at R390 per job, it's going to take a while before you get to R1M turnover.
 
newby_investor said:
Requirement to register for VAT is if your business does turnover of more than R1M annually IIRC.

So it's perfectly legal to operate in this way. And at R390 per job, it's going to take a while before you get to R1M turnover.
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12 installs every working day.
 
Not_original said:
12 installs every working day.
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Possible if it's a firm employing several people. For a sole contractor this would be quite a tough target to reach.

Anyway my point is it's quite possible to be not VAT-registered an operate legally. You still pay your income taxes one way or another.
 
newby_investor said:
Requirement to register for VAT is if your business does turnover of more than R1M annually IIRC.

So it's perfectly legal to operate in this way. And at R390 per job, it's going to take a while before you get to R1M turnover.
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Agree, but even tenderpreneurs need to be vat registered in order to be registered on the government supplier database. So why are these other squirrels not?
 
FlashSA said:
Agree, but even tenderpreneurs need to be vat registered in order to be registered on the government supplier database. So why are these other squirrels not?
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I stand under correction here but I think that you only need to have confirmation from SARS that your tax affairs are in order. If you are a smaller business and not required to register for VAT then that doesn't exclude you.

A quick google search couldn't point me to a definitive answer about this though so if there are people in public-sector procurement who can correct me I'm happy to listen.
 
I am a DTT installer who installed several hundred of these STBs in the first roll out from 2015 to 2017.
This second roll out was a complete farce. I was approached by SEVERAL "contractors" this time around, offering me hundreds of installations because I had the qualifications, the paperwork and experience to do the installs. These were building, painting and other contractors. Not installers. Not installation companies. Politically connected people with the right skin colour. I was offered between R180 and R220 per installation. T that rates, after buying the needed hardware and other necessary expenses, I would make a profit of less than R80 per installation..... In 2015 I was getting R480 per installation. I don't know who is doing these apparent installations because I know and have seen how corrupt the entire process was.....
I don't believe a single word of that ministers report.
 
freejester said:
I am a DTT installer who installed several hundred of these STBs in the first roll out from 2015 to 2017.
This second roll out was a complete farce. I was approached by SEVERAL "contractors" this time around, offering me hundreds of installations because I had the qualifications, the paperwork and experience to do the installs. These were building, painting and other contractors. Not installers. Not installation companies. Politically connected people with the right skin colour. I was offered between R180 and R220 per installation. T that rates, after buying the needed hardware and other necessary expenses, I would make a profit of less than R80 per installation..... In 2015 I was getting R480 per installation. I don't know who is doing these apparent installations because I know and have seen how corrupt the entire process was.....
I don't believe a single word of that ministers report.
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There we go. I thought I smelt smoke....
 
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