{"id":602649,"date":"2025-07-16T15:59:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T13:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=602649"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:00:03","slug":"sabc-gets-r700-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/602649-sabc-gets-r700-million.html","title":{"rendered":"SABC gets R700 million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has allocated R704 million to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Solly Malatsi revealed the public broadcaster’s funding allocation while presenting his Budget Vote debate speech<\/a> on Friday, 11 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SABC will receive R704 million over the MTEF. This includes R43 million for programme production, R464 million to support the core public broadcasting mandate, R197 million for Channel Africa,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to SABC News<\/a>, the minister said he appreciated the opportunity to clarify the funding. He explained that it isn’t a bailout as some outlets have reported, but rather a normal budgetary allocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister explained that South Africa’s public broadcaster is severely underfunded, making it difficult to fulfil its public mandate, which has also grown disproportionately to the SABC’s funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The core public broadcasting mandate is one of the major responsibilities of the public broadcaster, but severely underfunded due to the fiscal pressures that the state faces,” said Malatsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Also because, as time has evolved, the public mandate has grown, but it has not grown in proportion to the allocations that goes into the SABC.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that these factors significantly contribute to the public broadcaster’s poor financial situation. Malatsi said the SABC requires support through engagements with the National Treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s an expectation in government and society for the SABC to continue broadcasting national events and national sports,” said Malatsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But there is a mismatch between what is required and the resources that enable the SABC to fulfil that mandate, and do so well.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister explained that a major challenge is persuading “colleagues” about the challenges facing the public broadcaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sometimes, if you are not involved in these processes, I don’t think there’s a deeper appreciation of the challenges that exist in broadcasting,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malatsi said this lack of appreciation extends to the scale of resources required for the SABC to continue broadcasting going forward, and gave the example of covering the local government elections in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Next year we’ll be having an election. All the political parties will have an expectation of being covered equitably, and to do that, we’re going to need thorough resources,” he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing the TV licence regime<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During his speech, Malatsi also announced that his department would publish a request for proposals for a suitable service provider to develop a sustainable funding model for the SABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public broadcaster has been loss-making for over a decade, and TV licence avoidance significantly contributes to its poor financial situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That request for proposals seeks to bring to us solutions about how to best deal with the issue of the TV licence regime. It isn’t effective in fulfilling its role, particularly in the collection of fees,” said Malatsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister noted that alternatives such as a household levy have been proposed in the past, but said the department will assess the outcomes of the request for proposals to answer several questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is the most fair, what is the most practical, and what is the most appropriate in terms of injecting the resources that the SABC needs?” he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister said people must understand that a public broadcaster functions and exists because it is funded by the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There has to be that contribution emerging from the public. What we are grappling with is what would be the most fair instrument of doing so,” said Malatsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We hope that with the request for proposals, we’ll be able to answer that question adequately.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malatsi has suggested alternatives to the SABC TV licence and the household levy proposals, including a levy for international and local streaming services to fund the public broadcaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said it wouldn’t be fair to assess the extent of cabinet support for such a levy at this stage, adding that the funding model arising from the recent tender must be presented to Cabinet first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has allocated R704 million to the SABC, of which R464 million is to support its core public broadcasting mandate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":464039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[66538,83571,76862,19949,99638,34465],"class_list":["post-602649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-household-levy","tag-solly-malatsi","tag-south-african-broadcasting-corporation-sabc","tag-streaming-levy","tag-tv-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602649"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602746,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602649\/revisions\/602746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}