sabc car radio licence

sabc car radio licence:The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the state-owned national broadcaster in South Africa

Johannesburg – Monday 08 May 2023 – The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) would like to alert the public of a fake media statement which is circulating on various social media platforms titled “INTRODUCTION OF RADIO LICENCES AS PART SABC’S DRIVE TO GENERATE REVENUE”. The SABC has not issued any media statement making such public pronouncements regarding licences for car radios.

SABC car radio licence was a hoax, public broadcaster warns

The public broadcaster caught backlash earlier on Monday, after the statement, which can now be regarded as fake, proposed taxing motorists an annual R401 car radio licence fee as a means of supplementing “a dramatic decline in TV licence revenue.”

SABC rubbishes car radio licence statement as hoax

Most South Africans are not paying their TV license fees, but this can change if new legislation is approved to increase compliance.

This is feedback from SABC chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon, who was addressing Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications.

Van Biljon previously said only around 2.5 million of the 9.5 million TV licence holders on its database paid for licenses.

The SABC billed approximately R3 billion in TV licence fees per year but was only able to collect around R791 million.

The TV licence fee “evasion rate”, where households who do not bother to pay for a licence, is 76%.

This should not come as a surprise. Incompetence, maladministration, and corruption at the SABC mean many people refuse to fund the state broadcaster.

So dire is the situation that the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has called for the scrapping of TV licences, arguing this funding model for the SABC has failed.

The Department of Communications (DoC) and SABC are, however, doubling down on this funding model.