by Thinus Ferreira
Just 21% - only 2.2 million out of the 10.3 million SABC TV Licence holders that the struggling South African public broadcaster is aware of - bothered to still pay their annual TV licence during the 2020/2021 financial year, the SABC disclosed with the broadcaster also struggling with declining audiences of its content.
Millions more TV households than just the 10.3 million on the SABC's TV Licence database exist in South Africa that the broadcaster doesn't know of, that it had failed to capture with its outdated database system, and who are watching television without paying any fee.
The SABC tabled its annual financial report in parliament on Tuesday with the SABC that yet again received a qualified audit opinion from the auditor-general (AG), and with SABC TV Licence revenue that fell from R791 million in the previous financial year to R788 million in 2020/2021.
The SABC's net loss continued to rise by a further R20 million to R530 million from the previous financial year.
Meanwhile the SABC's advertising revenue plunged by a whopping R740 million and with revenue collection down 12%. SABC Television lost R600 million in advertising revenue compared to the previous year.
The SABC blames the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The long-term impact of Covid-19 restrictions, especially a third wave together with negative economic conditions remains uncertain. However, the board will closely monitor and respond to these."
"Advertising revenue declined by 18% due to the depressed economy compounded by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, lack of marketing and declining audiences," the SABC says.
"Overall, 2.2 million TV licence holders managed to settle their fees in full or in part against a known database of 10.3 million television licence holders," the SABC says.
The AG notes that the SABC's "irregular expenditure incurred was the result of payments made in contravention of supply chain management legislation and regulations".
According to the AG, the SABC failed to "implement adequate procedures in the past to identify and record all instances of irregular expenditure from prior years and possible impact of these transactions on the ongoing multiyear contracts concluded in those years".
This makes it look as if the SABC reduced irregular spending from R5.3 billion in the 2019/2020 financial year to R2.8 billion, although this is a false picture of irregular spending at the broadcaster that isn't fully disclosing the details of transactions identified as such.
The AG also says that the SABC failed to provide evidence that "disciplinary steps were taken against some of the officials who had incurred and/or permitted irregular expenditure" at the broadcaster.
The SABC retrenched 877 permanent workers during the financial year that cost R177 million in a once-off payment in severance packages.
