“The second recommendation was that the DCDT had to ensure that a sustainable funding framework for public broadcasting was finalised and submitted to Parliament,” the committee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The framework had to address the replacement of the current television licence collection model, the funding of public service mandate obligations, and report back to the committee within 6 months.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Communications Minister Solly Malatsi recently revealed that his department planned to submit options for a revised, sustainable funding model by 31 March 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funding model, which will replace the current TV licence scheme, will inform the final version of the SABC Bill, which will be submitted to Parliament between 1 April 2027 and 31 March 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malatsi said that, in the interim, the SABC would continue to receive funding through the existing government budgetary framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that the public broadcaster had been allocated R728.8 million from the National Revenue Fund over the 3-year Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The funds will cover the SABC’s mandate, programme productions, and Channel Africa, the SABC’s international public radio broadcasting service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malatsi said his department had sought additional funding through applicable budgetary processes to address the broadcaster’s immediate pressures, such as its signal distribution obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Minister warned that the broadcaster shouldn’t plan its operations on the assumption that it will receive additional funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It should continue implementing the revenue, cost-containment, and financial-management measures contained in its Corporate Plan,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South African residents have increasingly boycotted the TV licence scheme. The broadcaster is meant to generate a significant portion of its revenue from TV licence fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in 2024\/25, just 15% of TV licence holders paid their fees. The boycotting of TV licence payments has been an issue for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public broadcaster reported a payment avoidance rate of 69% in 2018\/19, which increased to 81% in 2019\/20, and continued to climb over the next 5 financial years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, the SABC lost out on approximately R22.8 billion in uncollected TV licence revenue between the 2019\/20 and 2024\/25 financial years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TV licences are still a legal requirement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wayne-Duvenage-new1600.jpg\")
<\/a>Wayne Duvenage, CEO at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has said that, although it wants the TV licence scheme scrapped, South Africans are still legally required to pay the fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It cautioned TV licence holders against defaulting on the payments, even if the risk of prosecution was nearly non-existent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“OUTA believes that the current TV licence scheme is clearly failing, but until the legislation changes, consumers remain legally liable for TV licence fees where applicable,” OUTA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The civil action organisation said TV licence holders should not assume that non-payment of TV licence fees carried no legal risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Failure to pay a TV licence remains a contravention of the law and legal consequences are still possible, including fines or imprisonment upon conviction,” OUTA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its warning aligned with the consequences of non-payment listed on the SABC’s TV licence FAQ page. It specifies that people who contravene TV licence laws face fines or up to 6 months’ jail time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Overdue accounts are handed over to the SABC’s lawyers for debt collection. If payments are late, an account incurs a penalty of 10% per month to a maximum of 100% per annum,” the SABC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Anyone found guilty in court of failing to comply with the law may be sentenced to a fine of not more than R500.00 or to imprisonment for up to six months, or both.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parliament wants the SABC’s new funding framework to replace TV Licences finalised and submitted for discussion and evaluation within 6 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":639675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Threads publishing failed: Threads returned HTTP 401: Error validating access token: Session has expired on Sunday, 11-Oct-26 00:47:18 PDT. The current time is Tuesday, 20-Oct-26 02:02:24 PDT.","_sma_x_post_id":"2112469387038839282","_sma_facebook_post_id":"120850204637381_1535004635318181","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18118802909075484","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[66538,35414,96893,76862,19949,34465],"class_list":["post-672865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-organisation-undoing-tax-abuse-outa","tag-portfolio-committee-on-communications-and-digital-technologies","tag-solly-malatsi","tag-south-african-broadcasting-corporation-sabc","tag-tv-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672865"}],"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=672865"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672980,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672865\/revisions\/672980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has said that, although it wants the TV licence scheme scrapped, South Africans are still legally required to pay the fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It cautioned TV licence holders against defaulting on the payments, even if the risk of prosecution was nearly non-existent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“OUTA believes that the current TV licence scheme is clearly failing, but until the legislation changes, consumers remain legally liable for TV licence fees where applicable,” OUTA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The civil action organisation said TV licence holders should not assume that non-payment of TV licence fees carried no legal risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Failure to pay a TV licence remains a contravention of the law and legal consequences are still possible, including fines or imprisonment upon conviction,” OUTA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its warning aligned with the consequences of non-payment listed on the SABC’s TV licence FAQ page. It specifies that people who contravene TV licence laws face fines or up to 6 months’ jail time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Overdue accounts are handed over to the SABC’s lawyers for debt collection. If payments are late, an account incurs a penalty of 10% per month to a maximum of 100% per annum,” the SABC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Anyone found guilty in court of failing to comply with the law may be sentenced to a fine of not more than R500.00 or to imprisonment for up to six months, or both.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parliament wants the SABC’s new funding framework to replace TV Licences finalised and submitted for discussion and evaluation within 6 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":639675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Threads publishing failed: Threads returned HTTP 401: Error validating access token: Session has expired on Sunday, 11-Oct-26 00:47:18 PDT. The current time is Tuesday, 20-Oct-26 02:02:24 PDT.","_sma_x_post_id":"2112469387038839282","_sma_facebook_post_id":"120850204637381_1535004635318181","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18118802909075484","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[66538,35414,96893,76862,19949,34465],"class_list":["post-672865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-organisation-undoing-tax-abuse-outa","tag-portfolio-committee-on-communications-and-digital-technologies","tag-solly-malatsi","tag-south-african-broadcasting-corporation-sabc","tag-tv-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672865"}],"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=672865"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672980,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672865\/revisions\/672980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}