The owner of every TV set in South Africa is compelled by the Broadcasting Act to pay an annual SABC TV licence, which will increase from R250 to R265 from 1 September.
Concessionary TV licences, granted to those older than 70 as well as to receivers of social grants from the state, will be increased from R70 to R74.
The minister of communications, Dina Pule who today got fired by president Jacob Zuma and replaced by Yunus Carrim, approved the 6% television licence tariff increase effective from 1 September.
"This is only the fourth tariff increase the SABC has been granted over the past 14 years, with the last one having been in 2009," says the SABC.
The public broadcaster which has for years struggled to effective collect SABC licence fees, says "the new tariff works out to just over 70 cents a day".
The SABC says its licence fee revenue enables it to provide locally produced radio and television programmes "in a harsh economic environment characterised by fierce competition".
"Despite the rapidly changing broadcasting environment, no tariff increases were implemented since 2009. The broadcasting environment, compounded by the current economic climate and additional responsibilities placed on the SABC by digital migration makes the tariff increase inevitable. It is important to ensure that the public broadcaster delivers on its mandate without compromise," says the SABC in the statement announcing the tariff hike.
