The SABC TV Licence Is Ending. Who Pays Now?

ByRiaan Roux
Watch: The SABC TV Licence Is Ending. Who Pays Now? (The Riaan Roux Show)

The SABC TV licence is on its way out. Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has now put dates on the plan to replace it, and the headlines say South Africans can soon say goodbye to the R265 licence, the letters and the debt collectors.

If you stopped paying years ago, that may sound like good news. But the questions I keep seeing are more practical. If I do not own a TV, will I still pay? Will it come off my salary, or onto my municipal account? And can people refuse it, the way motorists refused e-tolls?

The licence is being replaced so that the SABC gets paid, and nothing in the plan says you will pay less. Every public funding option described so far by the research firm the government hired draws on your money: a fee on households, a levy on individuals, or a grant out of the tax you already pay. And the collectors being considered include SARS, municipalities and banks.

In this video I explain when the licence is set to end, what is being considered to replace it, and how you would pay under each option. I also look at what you are already paying for the SABC through the national budget while the new model is drawn up.

In a closed meeting with MPs in February, the one option in which the SABC gets no tax money at all was, according to MyBroadband, unpopular. And according to the Auditor-General, about 73% of the unpaid licence numbers are linked to government entities and officials.

The licence was the one SABC payment you could ignore, and 85% of licence holders did. In my view, the new model is being designed so that you cannot.

When does the TV licence end?

On 14 October 2026, MyBroadband reported a written reply from Minister Malatsi to a question from ANC MP Shaik Imraan Subrathie. Malatsi said, “The Department has undertaken a process to develop a revised, sustainable funding model for the SABC.” His department wants to submit that model by 31 March 2027.

That model will then shape the final SABC Bill, which is set to go to Parliament between 1 April 2027 and 31 March 2028. Parliament then still has to debate it, take public comment and pass it.

So the licence does not end in 2026. In my view, on the department’s own dates, a working replacement is at least a year away, and probably more. This is also not the first attempt. Malatsi withdrew the previous SABC Bill in November 2024, and MyBroadband reported that the draft had no funding solution in it.

Until a new law is passed, the TV licence stays in force. Under the Broadcasting Act you still need a valid licence to use a TV, and it still costs R265 a year.

Why is the licence being replaced?

The reason is that most people stopped paying. In 2018/19, 69% of licence holders did not pay. A year later it was 81%. By 2024/25, only 15% of licence holders paid.

In its latest annual results, the SABC billed R4.9 billion in licence fees and could count only R758 million of it as income. According to MyBroadband, the SABC lost R22.8 billion in licence income between 2019/20 and 2024/25.

The biggest group of defaulters is the state itself. According to Daily Investor, the Auditor-General’s latest report on national and provincial audit outcomes found more than 1 million licence numbers linked to non-payment. About 73% of them belong to government entities and officials.

The SABC’s own answer so far was to turn its free streaming service, SABC+, into a game to get people to pay. Malatsi revealed in September 2026 that the test cost R2.5 million. The SABC says the pilot worked, but it will not share the details.

What will replace the licence?

In September 2025 the department appointed a research firm, BMI TechKnowledge, or BMIT, to design the new model. In February 2026, BMIT presented its early findings to Parliament’s communications committee, and most of that meeting was held behind closed doors. Malatsi said he asked for the closed session to protect an unfinished process.

MyBroadband reported the public funding options BMIT looked at.

  • Fees on households
  • A levy on individuals
  • Grants from government
  • What BMIT called “innovative options”
  • A model in which the SABC gets no tax money at all

BMIT’s managing director, Chris Geerdts, said the SABC needs a mix of commercial income and public funding. On the commercial side, the top ideas were advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions and licensing its content to others. He also said a loophole in the must-carry rules has given DStv 3 SABC channels for free for 12 years, and that it should be looked at.

Then there is the question of who collects. The options were municipalities and utilities, SARS, the ICT and media industry, banks and other financial institutions, other third parties, or the SABC itself. Almost every name on that list is someone you already pay, and cannot easily ignore.

I do not own a TV. Will I still pay?

This was the question I saw most under my video from October 2025, when I first asked whether you would pay a new SABC fee. One viewer wrote that they cannot receive any TV broadcast at all, and that they use YouTube for news and Netflix for entertainment.

Under a household fee, owning a TV would no longer matter. In 2021 the SABC asked for a “device-independent, tech-neutral household levy for public broadcasting”. Advanced Television reported that it would levy all households, with poor households exempt and pensioners paying less, and that the SABC wanted MultiChoice to collect it from DStv subscribers.

The ANC took the idea further. In August 2022, after the ANC’s policy conference, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, then the communications minister, said, “The TV licence arrangement is not working, it is actually affecting the SABC’s ability to survive.” She said the ANC wanted a household levy, and wanted the SABC’s public mandate funded from the national budget.

The SABC’s current leaders still want it. MyBroadband reported in May 2026 that CEO Nomsa Chabeli and board chair Khathutshelo Ramukumba support a household levy, and that Ramukumba suggested SARS collect it. He named Germany as the main example. In Germany, every household pays 18 Euro and 36 cents a month for public broadcasting, whether anyone in it watches or not.

Malatsi does not agree. In February 2026, speaking to PowerFM, he called replacing the licence with a household levy a “terrible idea”. He said, “The thought of a potential additional tax in this current dispensation would not gain favour with the public.” But in the same interview he said, “The public mandate cannot be sustained on freebies, it must be funded.”

In March 2025, in a written reply to Parliament, he listed a levy on local and international streaming services as one option, with TV licence holders exempt. He said, “This modernises funding and improves compliance through automatic collection.” He also warned that it would push up subscription prices.

So if you do not own a TV, the answer depends on which option wins. Under a household fee, you pay because you have a home. Under a streaming levy, you pay through your Netflix or Showmax account. Under a grant, you pay through your tax.

Am I not already paying for it?

Another viewer put it in one line: “We already pay a levy o online content, it’s called tax.” On that, the viewer is right. While the new model is drawn up, the SABC is funded through the national budget.

Malatsi’s reply says the SABC has been allocated R728.8 million from the National Revenue Fund over 3 years, for its public mandate, programme productions and Channel Africa. The National Revenue Fund is where the income tax and VAT you pay go.

In May 2026 he announced R234 million of that for children’s and educational programmes. The SABC said it is not a bailout. The department has also asked for more money through the budget process, for urgent costs such as getting the SABC’s signal broadcast, and Malatsi told the SABC not to count on it.

This comes after the R3.2 billion bailout National Treasury approved for the SABC in 2019, paid in 2 parts.

Some want more. In May 2026, Clayson Monyela, head of public diplomacy at DIRCO, called the SABC “the most commercially dependent public broadcaster in the world” and said it should get more public funding.

Can people refuse to pay, like e-tolls?

Under my October 2025 video, one viewer wrote, “We stopped e-toll because we refused to pay.. we can stop SABC as well.” Many others wrote that they will not pay for a broadcaster they see as the ANC’s voice.

The licence was that kind of payment. The SABC had to find you, bill you and chase you, and 85% of licence holders did not pay. A fee collected by SARS, added to your municipal account or taken by your bank works the other way around. The money is taken first, and you argue later. Malatsi’s own words for it were automatic collection.

MyBroadband reported that in the closed meeting in February, the option in which the SABC gets no tax money was unpopular. That was the one option where you would still decide for yourself whether the SABC is worth paying for.

BMIT’s remaining work, according to MyBroadband, included consulting National Treasury’s tax policy experts. In my view, that tells you what the new model will be, whatever name it is given.

So who pays?

So who pays for the SABC when the TV licence ends? You do, whether you watch it or not. The only open question is how the money is taken, and on every option described so far, it is taken in a way that is harder to refuse.

The licence did not fail because South Africans are dishonest. It failed because millions of people decided the SABC was not worth R265 a year, and the state’s own departments and officials did not pay either. A new way of collecting does not change that decision. It only takes it away from you.

Before the ANC-led government asks every household to fund the SABC, it should first explain why its own entities and officials make up about 73% of the unpaid licences.

Sources

  • MyBroadband, Myles Illidge, “South Africa sets targets for the end of the SABC TV licence”, 14 October 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, Jan Vermeulen, “End of SABC TV licences discussed in secret”, 8 February 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, Myles Illidge, “Say goodbye to the SABC TV Licence as you know it”, 2 February 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, Myles Illidge, “Bad news about SABC TV licences”, 23 April 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, Myles Illidge, “The SABC should get more money from taxpayers, says top diplomat”, 4 May 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, Luis Monzon, “R234 million for the SABC as South Africans say goodbye to TV Licences”, 14 May 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, Luis Monzon, “SABC replacing TV licences in South Africa”, 21 June 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • MyBroadband, “SABC silent about R2.5-million plan to get more people to pay TV licences”, September 2026: mybroadband.co.za
  • Daily Investor, Bianke Neethling, “Not even the government pays TV licence fees in South Africa”, 12 April 2026 (citing the Auditor-General’s 2024/25 national and provincial audit outcomes): dailyinvestor.com
  • Advanced Television, Chris Forrester, “SABC seeks household tax for TV fee”, 2 March 2021: advanced-television.com
  • The Herald, Unathi Nkanjeni, “Here’s why ANC is proposing to scrap paying TV licence fees in favour of a household levy”, 4 August 2022: theherald.co.za
  • The Post, Mayibongwe Maqhina, “Communications minister considers levy on streaming services to fund SABC”, 7 March 2025: thepost.co.za
  • Business Day, “Streaming services levy possible SABC funding option, says minister”, 4 March 2025: businessday.co.za
  • gov.za, SABC funding allocation (R2.1 billion, October 2019): gov.za
  • ARD ZDF Deutschlandradio Beitragsservice, the German household fee: rundfunkbeitrag.de
  • The Riaan Roux Show, “New SABC TV License Model – Will you PAY?”, 13 October 2025: youtu.be/ciaf-izDfis
  • Photo of Solly Malatsi: Democratic Alliance / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 ZA. Photo of Khumbudzo Ntshavheni: US Embassy South Africa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

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