SABC plans to go it alone without state funding

Parly told strategy will save public broadcaster

The commercially insolvent SABC has developed a fiveyear strategy that assumes it survives on its own without any funding from the fiscus, the public broadcaster’s chair, Khathutshelo Ramukumba, has told parliament.

The strategy bets that the SABC can generate enough income on its own to fund its public service mandate – at a cost of about R2bn a year – to inform, educate and entertain the country’s citizenry in all official languages.

But Ramukumba told a meeting of parliament’s communications and digital technologies committee last week the SABC still believed the fiscus should fund it, particularly in the light of the widespread nonpayment of TV licences. By mid-2023, R44.2bn (including penalties) was owed by 9.2million TV licence accounts.

Ramukumba said the fiveyear strategy was “very ambitious”. Deputy minister of communications and digital technologies Philly Mapulane said the SABC expected to break even over time if its corporate plan was successfully implemented.

The plan envisages aggressive revenue growth of 28%, to R6.4bn in 2024/25, based on a 15% increase in advertising revenue, 28% rise in sponsorships and a 19% increase in TV licence income. As SABC finance CFO Yolande van Biljon said, this was a “tall order” as the public broadcaster could not invest in the content necessary to attract the audiences required by advertisers. In the 2022/23 financial year, the SABC had a net loss of R1bn.

“We continue to be worried about the finances of the corporation,” Mapulane said, particularly the funding of the public service mandate.

The ministry had hoped for an allocation in the budget particularly to help the SABC cover the elections, but this did not materialise and the SABC had to reprioritise to find the funds.