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The SA government owes SABC millions.
Photo: Oleg Magni from Pexels
- The South African government owes SABC R57.1 million in outstanding SABC TV license fees.
- A total of 20 national departments have outstanding balances on SABC’s TV license fees, said Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa’s communications minister.
- In addition, the government also owes the SABC R29.2 million in advertising.
The South African government owes the struggling public broadcaster more than R57.1 million in licensing fees and pending SABC TV spots.
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa’s minister of communications and digital technologies, in a written response from Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Phumzile van Damme, revealed that the South African government owes the SABC that it struggles and has financial problems for the R57.1 million in pending payments for SABC TV license rights and for advertising.
“A total of 20 national departments have outstanding balances on SABC’s TV license fees,” said Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. According to Ndabeni-Abrahams, 126 provincial departments have pending license fees.
In addition, a whopping “249 municipal accounts owe SABC TV license rights. A total of 57 state companies have outstanding SABC TV license rights on their accounts,” Ndabeni-Abrahams said.
In addition, the South African government owes the SABC R29.2 million for advertising: 3 national departments owe R13.1 million, 24 provincial departments owe R9.2 million, six municipalities owe R3 million, and 8 state companies owe SABC R4. 5 million in payment for advertising on the air.
The Government Communications and Information Service (GCIS) owes the SABC almost a third of the debt in debt in advertising sales, with the Compensation Fund owing the SABC R3.7 million in advertising payments and the Metro eThekwini that still has to pay the SABC R1 .1 million for advertising.
Previously only a third, but now less than a quarter of South African TV households still bother to pay for their annual SABC TV license with a percentage continuing to decline. In SABC’s latest 2019/2020 financial report on SABC TV’s distressed public broadcaster’s revenue, license fees decreased 18% year-on-year to R791 million.
“This resulted in only 24% of the total license fees billed being realized as revenue, compared to 31% for the year ended March 31, 2019.”
