Desperately clinging to relevance between multi-billion bailouts, union litigation dramas, and its ever-increasing debt obligations, the SABC told parliament this week that streaming and satellite services should be compelled to “collect SABC TV licence fees on behalf of SABC”, despite those operators not even broadcasting SABC content.
According to News24, this involves expanding the purview of the SABC’s mandatory annual TV licence that (in theory) every local TV owner is supposed to pay, to incorporate streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Showmax, and satellite services like DStv. The plan also extends to non-TV devices – mobile phones and PCs, for example – used to watch non-SABC content, although this proposal was first made in 2017 and obviously hasn’t made it out of government’s bureaucratic sphincter, so. Maybe not?
In a presentation to parliament’s portfolio committee, deputy communications minister Pinky Kekana compared the revised scheme to “municipalities collecting traffic fines and motor vehicle debt from motorists”, because that’s, uh, totally the same thing. Or McDonalds skimming a tax off Burger King’s sales, because that is actually more or less the same thing.
The SABC’s TV licence, Kekana explained without discernible irony, “is outdated and needs to be addressed to current realities”. You’re this close, Tannie Pinky.