Legacy bug haunts the SABC and Post Office

Decades-old legislation that has failed to consider the ever-changing technological landscape has significantly contributed to the current financial positions of the South African Post Office and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

This is the view of industry analysts and stakeholders who have pointed to Parliament’s introduction of new legislation to save the public entities as something that should have happened decades ago.

Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird recently said in an interview that the SABC’s dire financial position could be linked to a failure to revise its funding model 15 to 20 years ago.

Bird points out that the funding model intended to generate the most revenue is the TV licence, which is a tax South Africans are required to pay to own a TV.

This is laid out in the Broadcasting Act of 1999 to fund the SABC’s social mandate of making its services available in all official languages.

However, the public has increasingly revolted against the tax, with the TV licence delinquency rate rising to 87%, causing great financial stress for the SABC.

Therefore, the SABC has proposed the household levy as an alternative funding model as the broadcaster argues that its content has expanded to multiple devices and is no longer only available on a TV.

This is because numerous ways of accessing audiovisual media have become available since the TV licence was first introduced, including streaming from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

The SABC has adapted to this by launching an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service called SABC+.

While Parliament has taken action by proposing the SABC Bill in 2023, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, and the chairperson of his department’s Portfolio Committee, Khusela Diko, have been at loggerheads.

This came after the Minister withdrew the bill in late 2024 because he deemed it ineffective, which Diko condemned.

Diko believes that any inadequacies can be addressed by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee before the bill is presented to the National Assembly for its second reading.

The South African Post Office

Similar to the SABC, the legislation governing the Post Office’s service mandate is outdated, making a turnaround incredibly difficult.

This is according to independent analyst Kayha Sithole, who said that South Africa’s attempt to save the public entity by President Cyril Ramaphosa assenting to the South Africa Post Office Amendment Bill is decades too late.

The bill aims to expand and diversify the Post Office’s services and mandate, given the change in how people communicate.

“The classic iteration of the service mandate of Sapo is to connect as many people as possible,” Sithole said, referring to how the Post Office would facilitate communication before telephones.

“The problem with this mandate is that it never kept up with the times. You then saw that the way people communicate and exchange information evolved much faster than the Post Office could keep up with.”

The Amendment Bill aims to update the Post Office’s mandate so that it offers logistics and e-commerce services, serve as a digital hub for businesses and communities, and acts as a designated authentication authority for digital identity services.

However, this comes a year and a half after the state entity was placed into business rescue in July 2023, requiring a R2.4 billion bailout to begin the process.

The Post Office now requires another R3.8 billion to get out of business rescue, or it may face closure as early as the end of February.

Online Gambling

While the lack of updated legislation surrounding gambling in South Africa has not led to the failure of any state institutions, it has created great confusion around the legalities of online casinos.

Online gambling remains illegal in South Africa due to the President’s failure to put an amendment to the National Gambling Act of 2004 into operation.

The Act regulates gambling and sports betting activities in South Africa but has not been amended since its publication over two decades ago.

An attempt was made to do so in July 2008 when President Thabo Mbeki assented to the National Gambling Act Amendment Bill that provides the necessary legislation to regulate online gambling activities.

However, the Act was not put into operation by Jacob Zuma or Cyril Ramaphosa.

Parliament has made multiple attempts to seek clarity and better regulate online gambling in South Africa.

The most recent attempt was by the DA, which proposed the Remote Gambling Bill a month before South Africa’s general election in 2024. The bill aimed to regulate the advertising of online gambling and protect children and vulnerable persons.

The bill, which took two years to compile according to DA MP Dean Macpherson, now serving as the Minister of Public Works, also proposed that gambling licences be issued by relevant provincial authorities rather than the National Gambling Board.

“It is highly concerning given the massive strides and advances online usage has increased and grown since 2008,” Macpherson said.

“By not regulating this gambling activity, the erosion of the rule of law and criminal activity is being encouraged, while the public is not effectively protected as they are when using land-based gaming operations.”

A similar bill was proposed in 2015 by Cape Town’s current mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, but did not progress due to a lack of support.

As a result of South Africans’ continued use of online gambling services, the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, Parks Tau, recently said his department will begin cracking down on online casinos.