{"id":654730,"date":"2026-06-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=654730"},"modified":"2026-06-19T07:23:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:23:51","slug":"r700-million-bailout-and-no-questions-asked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/654730-r700-million-bailout-and-no-questions-asked.html","title":{"rendered":"R700-million bailout and no questions asked"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s National Treasury allocated R700 million to signal distributor Sentech in the 2026 budget without reviewing the entity’s business model, governance structure, or long-term financial sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was acknowledged by the finance minister Enoch Godongwana in a response<\/a> to Parliamentary questions from BOSA’s Mmusi Maimane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana said while the National Treasury had not called for a review, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies was asked to engage on policy funding models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included engaging with the roles of several entities under its umbrella, which include Sentech, and how they can be made fit for purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana added that an additional R189-million allocation to Sentech for dual illumination, the concurrent broadcasting of digital and analogue broadcast signals, came with conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sentech must develop a model for cost recovery in the event that the entity must operate both analogue and digital systems in the foreseeable future,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana explained that, with broadcasting services falling under the ambit of the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, the ministry had the mandate to initiate reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies is the executive authority of Sentech and, therefore, has the mandate to initiate reviews on Sentech’s business models and governance,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentech’s finances have suffered as a result of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC’s) failure to pay its signal transmission fees, which reached approximately R1.6 billion by February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Treasury intervened to provide funding to Sentech, allocating an amount of R889 million for the purposes of signal distribution and running dual illumination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenting before Parliament in February 2026, Sentech chief financial officer Clarinda Simpson revealed that the SABC’s monthly bills were around R71 million for most of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the public broadcaster only paid R20 million in most months, increasing to R30 million in November and December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delayed digital migration takes a toll<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Clarinda Simpson, Sentech CFO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Simpson said the SABC had committed to continue paying R30 million per month up until the end of March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She warned that Sentech was no longer a going concern, noting that it had “R176 million in the bank” at the time of its presentation before Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are a business enterprise. We are supposed to be self-sustainable, generate revenue, which we are doing,” Simpson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she said Sentech’s sister entities under the communications department were not fulfilling their obligations or paying the debt, creating Sentech’s dire financial situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state signal distributor has also been burdened by the need to simultaneously broadcast analogue and digital TV signals due to the government’s long-delayed Broadcast Digital Migration project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project, which aimed to transition terrestrial broadcasting from analogue to digital in South Africa, has dragged on since November 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, free-to-air broadcasters like the SABC and eMedia raised concerns that prematurely switching analogue signals off would leave many of their viewers without access to TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they generated much of their revenue through advertising, these broadcasters were also concerned that a premature switch-off could have devastating consequences for their finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until analogue TV signals are switched off in South Africa, Sentech must continue to broadcast both types of signals simultaneously, which carries an additional cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2024, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said dual illumination had cost R1.23 billion<\/a> since the 2015 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below provides a breakdown of South Africa’s annual dual illumination spending between 2014\/15 and 2023\/24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/th>Dual Illumination cost<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2023\/24<\/td>R131,236,588<\/td><\/tr>
2022\/23<\/td>R136,398,570<\/td><\/tr>
2021\/22<\/td>R167,082,781<\/td><\/tr>
2020\/21<\/td>R146,000,150<\/td><\/tr>
2019\/20<\/td>R130,562,733<\/td><\/tr>
2018\/19<\/td>R134,933,181<\/td><\/tr>
2017\/18<\/td>R89,805,901<\/td><\/tr>
2016\/17<\/td>R100,727,869<\/td><\/tr>
2015\/16<\/td>R100,727,689<\/td><\/tr>
2014\/15<\/td>R89,348,963<\/td><\/tr>
Total<\/strong><\/td>R1,226,824,425<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state signal distributor received a R700-million taxpayer bailout designated for signal distribution, in part due to the SABC’s failure to pay its signal transmission fees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":654740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[104424,80939,4190,105998,97967,71346,11561,12285,361,2760,105993,105994,19949],"class_list":["post-654730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-analogue-signals","tag-broadcast-digital-migration","tag-digital-migration","tag-digital-signals","tag-dual-illumination","tag-enoch-godongwana","tag-mmusi-maimane","tag-national-treasury","tag-sabc","tag-sentech","tag-signal-distribution","tag-signal-transmission","tag-south-african-broadcasting-corporation-sabc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654730"}],"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=654730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654809,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654730\/revisions\/654809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}