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The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has proposed a renewal of South Africa’s current Broadcasting Act in an effort to boost the powers of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
In a white paper published last week, the department said that the Broadcasting Act will change to the ‘South Africa Broadcasting Corporations Act’ and the government will amend the legislation to ‘reflect the role of public service broadcasting to be played by the SABC. in the growing audiovisual content services market in South Africa ».
These amendments will include changes to the Television License Fees section of the Act, the department said. It proposes:
- Expansion of the definition and collection system for television licenses;
- Strengthening of enforcement mechanisms and penalties for non-payment.
Section 27 (5) of the current Broadcasting Act already allows the SABC to apply much stricter penalties for people who do not pay for their license, although this is rarely applied.
Specifically, a person who fails to comply with any legal demand made by an inspector, is guilty of an offense in relation to each television with respect to which the offense is committed and is liable, upon conviction, for a fine not exceeding R500 in relation to each such crime or imprisonment for a period not to exceed six months or both fine and imprisonment.
However, the SABC says that it is currently difficult and impractical to implement these measures due to socio-economic and political factors.
South Africans who do not pay
The SABC says that TV license cash collections were severely affected during the coronavirus shutdown as its usual collection methods were shut down.
In a presentation for parliament In September, the national broadcaster said that Debt Collection Agencies (DCA) began collecting in the last week of May 2020 and there was a considerable improvement in June and July 2020 compared to previous months.
“TV Licenses cash for all sources of income began to improve slightly in June, the period in which many restrictions were relaxed and providers were able to operate,” he said.
“However, due to the economic climate that has had an effect on the cash disposition of licensees, compliance levels have not improved and are expected to decline steadily through the remainder of 2020.”
The SABC said that television license fees are charged monthly despite all the challenges faced. He added that there are plans in place to minimize the shortfall in cash collection.
These include new marketing campaigns, developments in technology requirements, campaigns to increase debit orders and settlements of delinquent license fees.
The broadcaster said its collection process is run internally prior to delivery to DCAs. These processes are repeated throughout the month depending on the customer’s payment patterns. Thereafter, unpaid accounts are turned over for debt collection after 60 days, he said.
A TV license is valid for twelve months and is renewed at the end of the license period.
“Licensees who have not made payment during the renewal phase will be referred to the debt collectors 60 days after the renewal date. This is the only recourse available to SABC to pursue payments from non-compliant licensees. “
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