The SABC will spend R704 million of taxpayer money on programming for one group
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) recently revealed that it would spend R704 million over three years on educational content and programming for children.
This amount translates to R234 million per year, allocated by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) to fund the SABC’s public service mandate.
Responding to questions from MyBroadband, the SABC said the amount allocated by National Treasury, via the DCDT, was insufficient to cover the production of its public service mandate content.
“It costs the SABC at least R2 billion annually to deliver on its public mandate,” it said.
The corporation said it must generate R1.766 billion for the rest of its yearly constitutionally required content without government support.
Usually, it would make up the shortfall with TV licence fees, which are meant to be collected monthly from every household with a device that can receive a TV signal.
However, South Africans have largely stopped paying their TV licences in an act of collective civil disobedience, with the SABC reporting an 85% evasion rate.
“The Government allocation is currently not sufficient and so commercial revenue must cover public service mandate content,” it explained.
In response to the R234 million per year allocation being described as a taxpayer bailout, the SABC issued a statement clarifying that the money was ringfenced.
It could not use the funding for any purpose other than producing and acquiring educational and children’s programming. It argued that, for this reason, the allocation was not a bailout.
“The SABC has consistently maintained that the full cost of delivering on its public service and constitutional mandate requires an appropriately funded and sustainable model over the long term,” it said.
In response to MyBroadband’s questions, the public broadcaster provided a list of all the programmes it airs on its channels directly funded by the R234-million allocation. The list comprised:
- Geleza Nathi
- Skeem Saam
- My Night
- Live Children’s Breakfast Show (Rep Our School)
- Our Space
- Yum.Me
- My First
- Ama 2000
Popular series Skeem Saam stood out, as it is a long-running soap opera. It was also noteworthy that only eight programmes were on the list.
However, the SABC explained that most of the shows being funded by taxpayers were yet to be contracted or acquired.
Skeem Saam funded by taxpayers
Skeem Saam has tackled themes about the journey from adolescence into adulthood since 2011, and follows the lives of teenagers and their families.
While the show has changed since it was first commissioned, it was initially produced under SABC Education and has continued to be funded by the government as an educational programme.
“Skeem Saam examines the way in which these friends deal with issues of masculinity, crime, gender relations, relationships, peer pressure, sex, etc,” former SABC Education head Sabe Zondi said in 2011.
The broadcaster explained that the annual funding from the department would cover production and content acquisition costs.
“We use both our internal production department to balance cost as well as external production companies to do so,” it said.
“The funding is received in quarterly tranches, which also impacts the acquisition cadences.”
SABC assured public funds would not be misused
MyBroadband also asked the SABC for a breakdown of which production companies it was contracting to produce content with the three-year R704 million allocation.
It said that most of the shows funded by taxpayers were still in the process of being fully contracted or acquired, so it could not currently provide more information about them.
The broadcaster would also not provide a breakdown of the regular viewership metrics for the programming funded by taxpayers.
“The core reason why we require public mandate content to be funded is to avoid looking at such content from a commercial lens of audience and revenue delivery,” it said.
In 2021, the SABC said Skeem Saam had a regular weekly audience of over 3 million viewers, buoyed by its primetime spot on SABC 1.
The SABC would also not provide details on the mechanisms it would use to ensure that no funds from the DCDT allocation would be used for commercial purposes or general bailouts.
“The SABC can assure the public and all relevant stakeholders that the government funding allocated under the auspices of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework is used for the purposes it is allocated.”
The SABC said quarterly reporting on the utilisation of the funds was made available to the shareholder, the South African government, represented by the DCDT and the Minister of Communications.
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