by Thinus Ferreira
An astonishing 9.2 million South Africans owe a collective R44.2 billion in piled up SABC TV Licence fees - an astronomical amount of money the beleaguered South African public broadcaster can never hope to get.
In a written answer by Mondli Gungubele, South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies, the shocking revelation is made that "a total of 9.2 million accounts has outstanding balances valued at R44.2 billion".
According to the minister, the R44.2 billion comprised of unpaid invoices and penalities levied for non-payment over several years, with at least 5.6 million accounts which have been handed over for external debt collection.
The SABC's TV Licence system and compliance are broken beyond repair, with the department and the SABC looking at trying to scrap it and get it replaced with a new household levy.
The department notes that it is "proposing that the television licence model be replaced with the household fee model. Pending legislative changes, the department will continuously engage with the SABC and Treasury to examine the options for the necessary reform and enhancements required of the current TV licence system to properly provide for the funding requirements of the SABC and the most appropriate collection, enforcement systems and a timeframe for implementation".
The SABC, which is set to once again post a loss of over R1 billion for the 2022/2023 financial year, knew of about 10.5 million registered SABC TV Licence holders by March 2022.
That is however but a fraction of the total number of South African TV households in the country with millions more households owning TV sets without any licence and which the SABC is not aware of - people who are watching pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv, StarTimes Media SA's StarSat, video streaming services and other video content without any licence.
After billing R4.446 billion in total SABC TV Licence fees during its 2021/2022 financial year, the SABC made only R815 million - meaning that a massive 81.7% of people who have or once had a SABC TV Licence are simply not paying it, known as the fee evasion rate.
Meanwhile, the SABC spent R73 million rand on SABC TV Licence fee collection, which increased R9 million from R64 million in the previous financial year - meaning that the SABC's collection cost rate climbed further from 8.1% to 8.9%.
