{"id":521689,"date":"2024-01-16T07:06:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T05:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=521689"},"modified":"2024-01-16T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T08:47:11","slug":"call-to-scrap-tv-licences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/521689-call-to-scrap-tv-licences.html","title":{"rendered":"Call to scrap TV licences"},"content":{"rendered":"

AfriForum says TV licences must be scrapped, and the SABC should be privatised.<\/p>\n

This is according to comments the civil rights organisation submitted in response to the South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC LTD Bill.<\/p>\n

Parliament published the bill<\/strong><\/a> for public comment in October last year, and communications minister Mondli Gungubele was criticised for its lack of action.<\/p>\n

Instead of proposing new funding models for the SABC, the bill stipulates that the minister must develop a funding model framework within three years of the president signing it into law.<\/p>\n

This framework must ensure that most of the SABC\u2019s funding is sourced from the State.<\/p>\n

The communication minister must also develop a comprehensive feasibility study, in consultation with the finance minister, to provide a clear business case before establishing the funding model.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the proposed legislation requires the SABC\u2019s existing TV licence system to remain in effect.<\/p>\n

What frustrated industry watchers and civil society groups is that this came after a lengthy public consultation process that began in October 2020<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mondli Gunubele, South African minister of communications<\/p><\/div>\n

Key stakeholders all agreed that TV licences must be scrapped and replaced with a general household levy, similar to Germany\u2019s Rundfunkbeitrag<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While there was heated debate about how to collect the tax, the SABC and MultiChoice agreed that a household levy was the most realistic option.<\/p>\n

Scrapping TV licences in favour of a household levy is also one of the ANC\u2019s resolutions<\/strong><\/a> adopted at its December 2022 national elective conference.<\/p>\n

Civil action group Outa previously argued that the SABC should be funded with a government grant<\/strong><\/a>. If TV licences are retained, Outa said it should also be treated like a tax through a money bill passed by Parliament rather than a single minister setting the fee.<\/p>\n

A new model is needed because, with the rise of online streaming, people are increasingly accessing SABC content on devices other than traditional TVs and radios.<\/p>\n

South Africans are also refusing to pay their TV licences, with the SABC calculating that the licence evasion rate<\/strong><\/a> stood at 85.8% at the end of its 2023 financial year.<\/p>\n

This is up from an 82% evasion rate in 2022<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stated differently, only 14.2% of households who previously bought a TV licence paid their bill in 2023. The evasion rate does not account for people who never had a TV licence.<\/p>\n

Even South African government entities owed the SABC R56 million in TV licence fees at the end of the 2023 financial year.<\/p>\n

Scrap TV licences or privatise the SABC<\/h2>\n

On Monday, Afriforum submitted its comments on the SABC bill to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies.<\/p>\n

Where industry players favoured a household levy to replace TV licences, AfriForum believes a more radical approach is necessary.<\/p>\n

It proposed scrapping TV licences or privatising the public broadcaster to solve its struggles with funding, corruption, mismanagement, and wasteful expenditure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfriForum\u2019s main solution proposes the privatisation of this state-owned enterprise,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, if the government rejects this decentralisation of state power, the alternative is for TV licences to be scrapped. Either way, the current dysfunctional status quo cannot continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its submission, AfriForum argued that privatisation would reinvigorate the SABC and lead to better efficiency, higher quality programmes, and financial stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivatisation would also help fight corruption and mismanagement,\u201d AfriForum said.<\/p>\n

AfriForum cited the high evasion rates and the unjustifiable extra financial burden licences place on poor households as arguments for scrapping TV licences.<\/p>\n

AfriForum also suggested possible alternative sources of funding, such as partnerships, sponsorships, and collaboration with private entities.<\/p>\n

AfriForum public relations head Ernst van Zyl said the South African government has had more than enough time to turn the dire and deteriorating situation at the SABC around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for an alternative \u2014 a non-state-centric approach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Van Zyl said that given the high TV licence evasion rate, they should be scrapped and replaced with an alternative funding model that actually works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of the SABC being privatised, TV licences would naturally become a thing of the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a Parliamentary submission, AfriForum has called for TV licences to be scrapped or the SABC to be privatised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":499073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18668],"tags":[19252,1731,74006,35,72090,52623,19949,89682],"class_list":["post-521689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","category-government","tag-african-national-congress-anc","tag-afriforum","tag-ernst-van-zyl","tag-headline","tag-mondli-gungubele","tag-sabc-tv-licence","tag-south-african-broadcasting-corporation-sabc","tag-south-african-broadcasting-corporation-sabc-bill-of-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521691,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521689\/revisions\/521691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}