South African Broadcasting Corporation CEO Nomsa Chabeli says the TV licence scheme is archaic and no longer relevant.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s CEO, Nomsa Chabeli, says the TV licence scheme has failed and is no longer relevant in today’s world., she said they proposed an alternative in their submissions on the SABC Bill, namely a household levy that could be collected by the South African Revenue Service .
Chabeli believes the TV licence scheme failed due to a historic culture of non-payment in South Africa, which she says isn’t unique to the SABC. “People generally don’t believe they should have to pay for services. It’s not unique to the SABC. We see it with electricity, with water, etc. So we need to understand that there is that culture,” she said. She described the TV licence scheme as being “archaic” and “outdated,” making finding new, sustainable funding sources crucial. “It’s no longer relevant for the world that we live in today. The SABC did give submissions on the SABC Bill, and one of the key things we looked at was a household levy,” said Chabeli.She explained that another viable option is obtaining funding from the national fiscus, in which case the National Treasury would have to fund the SABC’s critical public mandate. Regarding TV licence fee non-payment, the broadcaster recently published its annual results for the 2024/25 financial year, which revealed aHowever, with only 15% of holders paying their TV licence fees in the year, the public broadcaster missed out on significant potential revenue. Its TV licence billing amounted to R4.936 billion, and it only collected R758 million, meaning roughly R4.2 billion was left uncollected. TV licence fee avoidance has been high for several years. In the 2023/24 financial year, just 14% of holders paid their TV licence fees, down from 16% the previous year.The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies recently announced that it hadMinister Solly Malatsi announced the selection of BMIT as the preferred bidder for the contract on 12 September 2025. “This is a major milestone in our efforts to secure the public broadcaster’s future and mandate to serve millions of South Africans,” he said. “BMI TechKnowledge is a long-standing South African ICT research and advisory firm with a proven track record of economic modelling, broadcasting market analysis, and regulatory policy support.” The SABC Bill was initially expected to provide a new funding model for the SABC. However, as tabled before parliament, it simply tasked the ministers of communication and finance to develop one within three years. Considering the SABC’s dire financial situation, another three-year wait could be disastrous for the public broadcaster. Malatsi wrote to Parliament speaker Thoko Didiza in November 2024, informing the legislature that he was withdrawing the “fundamentally flawed” bill. This sparked criticism from Khusela Diko, chair of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, who said it would be the “death knell” for the public broadcaster. Initially there was talk that President Cyril Ramaphosa would help ANC MPs reverse Malatsi’s withdrawal of the SABC Bill. However, in September 2025, Diko stated that the committee had stood down on the issue to allow Malatsi’s plan to proceed. However, sheShe said little, if any, progress had been made in developing a sustainable funding model for the public broadcaster. “It’s been more than six months. We agreed to stand down as a committee to allow him to deal with it, and not much, if anything, has been done,” said Diko. “We are urging the minister to once again finalise this process and not hide behind bureaucratic red tape.” In his notice announcing the appointment of BMIT, Malatsi said the milestone fulfilled his commitment to prioritise the development of a sustainable funding model for the SABC. “Given the substantial public interest in the SABC’s financial sustainability, I will provide key updates as and when the need arises,” he said.
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