{"id":456762,"date":"2020-12-13T08:05:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T06:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=456762"},"modified":"2020-12-13T08:05:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T06:05:49","slug":"anc-wants-household-levy-to-fund-the-sabc-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/456762\/anc-wants-household-levy-to-fund-the-sabc-report\/","title":{"rendered":"ANC wants ‘household levy’ to fund the SABC – report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ANC wants taxpayers to fund the bankrupt South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) through a ‘household levy’ which every home in in the country would be forced to pay, the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n

The ANC\u2019s national executive committee (NEC) included this in its draft resolutions during a meeting this past week.<\/p>\n

It proposes that the government should introduce a special levy to be paid by every household \u2013 regardless of how they consume content.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery household is assumed to have a television. It does not matter whether you watch it or not,\u201d said NEC chair Nkenke Kekana.<\/p>\n

He said that while the levy would not be a significant sum of money, collectively, it would be significant for the struggling SABC, the paper reported.<\/p>\n

The proposal will be discussed further during an NEC meeting set to take place next month, and if it is agreed upon, will be taken to the ANC\u2019s national general council (NGC) in May \u2013 where it would become government policy if accepted.<\/p>\n

The levy would reportedly use a similar model to current indirect taxes like the fuel levy, which funds the Road Accident Fund (RAF), and electricity tariffs used to help Eskom.<\/p>\n

Funding woes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unprecedented market conditions and evolution in technologies are responsible for the current precarious position of the SABC, communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said recently.<\/p>\n

Responding in a National Assembly plenary at the start of December, Ndabeni-Abrahams said that the national broadcaster was also impacted by state capture.<\/p>\n

\u201cA large proportion of the problems are market-related and require (government) to remodel the SABC as the public broadcaster in a multi-channel and digital environment. (We need) to rebuild the public broadcaster we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ndabeni-Abrahams said that the national broadcaster\u2019s problems are not unique, with broadcasters in Europe and other parts of the world dealing with similar issues.<\/p>\n

The minister said by far the largest issue for the SABC is finding an appropriate funding model, with the current mix of advertising, government grants and TV licence fees not able to sustain current content demands.<\/p>\n

She said this has been exacerbated by decreased government spending, a challenging Covid-19 environment and increased role players in the sector.<\/p>\n

New ways to collect<\/strong><\/p>\n

The SABC tabled its 2019\/20 annual report in parliament in mid-November, showing a further decline in people paying TV licences.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster said that the TV licence revenue declined by 18% year-on-year to R791 million due to the delayed use of debt collection agencies over this period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis resulted in only 24% of the total licence fees<\/strong> billed being realised as revenue, compared to 31% for the year ended 31 March 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of an overall policy review, the SABC is currently finalising proposals to government on the future collection of a public broadcasting levy, taking into account differing public views on this issue as well as international best practice,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

In an op-ed<\/a><\/strong> published at the start of November, the SABC\u2019s head of TV licences Sylvia Tladi said that changes need to be made to South Africa\u2019s broadcasting regulations \u2013 including an expanded definition of a \u2018TV set\u2019 or now, a broadcasting device.<\/p>\n

Some of the devices which are being considered under this expanded definition include:<\/p>\n