Time to scrap TV licences after the state’s record of non-payment comes to light says AfriForum

The announcement that state departments have not paid their TV licences for years and now owe the SABC almost R35 million in overdue licence fees is further proof that this system is a formidable flop in which even the state has lost confidence and must be scrapped immediately, says AfriForum. The civil rights organisation already called for the privatisation of the public broadcaster earlier this year. The appeal was repeated in September at a parliamentary presentation on the South African Broadcasting Corporation Bill and AfriForum still maintains that this is the only sustainable option for the continued existence of the SABC.

The latest figures of consumers who don’t pay their TV licences are, according to Ernst van Zyl, Head of Public Relations at AfriForum, a clear sign that the SABC is clinging to its failed operating and financing model. According to the SABC’s annual reports, the evasion rate of TV licence fees increased from 72% in 2018 to 85,8% in 2023.

According to Van Zyl, it is significant that it appears as if the state has now also joined consumers’ silent protest against TV licences. “The SABC must choose whether it will sink or swim, while the inefficient, state-centred model with its obsolete TV licences to which it clings are like concrete blocks around its ankles that make the fight for life and death even more unfeasible,” concludes Van Zyl.

According to AfriForum, the SABC now has the opportunity to escape the existential crisis in which it has been immersed for decades by means of a fresh approach, namely privatisation, to re-establish trust in viewers and listeners and reposition the broadcaster as a modern and relevant institution.