logo
Less than 20% of South African households pay TV licences, SABC warns of financial crisis

Less than 20% of South African households pay TV licences, SABC warns of financial crisis

IOL News15-05-2025
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has reported that less than 20% of South African households are paying their TV licence fees.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has reported that less than 20% of South African households are paying their TV licence fees.
The public broadcaster shared this information while briefing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, during a session focused on its audit outcomes and financial performance.
SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli told the committee that the cost of delivering the public broadcasting mandate remains significantly underfunded, forcing the organisation to rely heavily on commercial revenue.
"It's important to note that when we have discussions about the SABC's financial sustainability, we remember the cost of the public mandate that is currently unfunded. The SABC, from a commercial perspective, takes commercial revenue to fund the public mandate that's our current model." Chabeli said.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

SA sugar industry set for improved harvest; yet tariff uncertainty threatens the sector's future
SA sugar industry set for improved harvest; yet tariff uncertainty threatens the sector's future

IOL News

time10 minutes ago

  • IOL News

SA sugar industry set for improved harvest; yet tariff uncertainty threatens the sector's future

SA Canegrowers says South Africa is currently experiencing a surge in deep-sea sugar imports. Much of this imported sugar is heavily subsidised in its country of origin, arriving in South Africa at a price far below local production costs undercutting local growers' sugarcane revenue and their financial sustainability. Image: Karen Sandison/Independent Newspapers Higgins Mdluli South Africa's sugarcane growers are expecting a significantly improved harvest this season, following a rebound in rainfall after last year's drier-than-normal conditions. The current estimate for the 2025 season stands at 17.7 million tons of sugarcane, up from 16.47 million tons in the previous year – which was the lowest crop in eight seasons. While this recovery in yield is welcome news, the industry's economic outlook remains under serious threat due to delays in adjusting South Africa's import tariff, the flood of cheap imports into the country and the looming 30% tariff from the United States on South African sugar exports. The delay in adjusting our own sugar import tariff to reflect current global realities is undermining the competitiveness of local producers. At the same time, the US tariff threatens our access to what has historically been one of our key premium export markets. South Africa is currently experiencing a surge in deep-sea sugar imports. Much of this imported sugar is heavily subsidised in its country of origin, arriving in South Africa at a price far below local production costs undercutting local growers' sugarcane revenue and their financial sustainability. Importers in South Africa are taking advantage of the gap between the current import duty and the level that should be in place, as provided for in legislation. However, the large amounts of cheap sugar entering South Africa do not benefit consumers - importers continue to sell at local retail and industrial prices, increasing profits at the direct expense of local farmers. SA Canegrowers represents over 24 000 small-scale and 1 200 large-scale sugarcane growers in South Africa. These growers provide jobs and economic stability in rural Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, in areas where opportunities are scarce. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Unrestrained sugar imports displace local product from shelves or as input for local commercial users, which lowers domestic sales. This lower level of local sales forces the industry to export more sugar at a significant price disadvantage. In 2017/18 and 2018/19, a similar delay in enacting fair import tariffs – as per South African government regulations – meant the South African sugar industry had to export large volumes of sugar to a highly distorted international market leading to significant financial losses for the industry. A repeat of this scenario will lead to job losses, as growers are also already facing many other threats, including the sugar tax and rising input costs. The South African sugarcane industry produces sufficient sugar to meet all demand in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and still have excess volume to export. With production levels back to normal, but with supressed local demand due as foreign sugar that displaces local sugar, more sugar will have to be exported at a considerable loss this year. This year, the global trading environment is even more uncertain. The likelihood of a 30% tariff on South African products entering the US, at least for the time being, further disadvantages South African sugar on the global market. We urge government to move swiftly: to revise the import duty in line with current global prices and to prioritise a new trade agreement with the US that safeguards our export potential. Higgins Mdluli is the chairman of SA Canegrowers. Image: Supplied * Higgins Mdluli is the chairman of SA Canegrowers. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. BUSINESS REPORT

South Africa's housing crisis: over 80% of households unable to afford local properties
South Africa's housing crisis: over 80% of households unable to afford local properties

IOL News

time40 minutes ago

  • IOL News

South Africa's housing crisis: over 80% of households unable to afford local properties

South Africa contends with a housing affordability crisis. Image: Rob McGaffin An overwhelming majority of South African households are currently priced out of the local property market, and this trend is worsening. 'There's something very wrong if such a large demand is not being met and, although the problem is well known in the property industry, no real solutions are forthcoming from the government actors who are responsible for solving these problems,' says Renier Kriek, managing director of innovative home finance provider, Sentinel Homes. He says the root causes are mainly systemic and need to be addressed by the government. It is simply not acceptable that the country has added close to 20 million inhabitants in SA, but the economy has managed to produce a mere 1.9 million homes. In its June 2025 Property Newsletter, automotive and property data provider Lightstone reports that only one formal house exists per 3.3 families, who earn less than R26 000 per month. This accounts for more than 80% of South African households. Sentinel Homes said not only are there not enough houses, but new developments are victims of rising construction costs, making each generation of property less affordable to consumers than previously. The home finance provider said property prices have been outpacing wage increases for the past 70 years, not only in SA but in most of the world. Earlier this year, this publication reported that the take-home pay of only 15.8% of South Africans would be sufficient to be able to afford a property of R1.3 million in value. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Following last year's BankservAfrica Take-Home Pay Index (BTPI), Elize Kruger, an independent economist, said according to the calculations of an estate agent, for a salary earner to afford a property of R1.3 million in value, with a repayment of R13 480 per month over 20 years, based on the prime rate of 11%, the gross income per month of such a salaried person must be R40 000. She said that, assuming an effective tax rate of 23.1% (for an annual income of R480 000), that translates into a net salary/take-home pay (after income tax) of approximately R30 000. Kruger said these numbers are based on a single income per household, so when assuming that two incomes are used to finance a property. Add to this trend, Sentinel said South Africa's flaccid economic growth, resulting in low job creation and low wage growth, made it easy to see why affording a home is becoming harder and harder for low to middle-income earners. Data analysed by Lightstone showed that there was one property for 4.8 households earning under R13 000 a month. The ratio improved to 3.3 households for every one formal property if the salary threshold moved to R26 000 a month, said Hayley Ivins-Downes, the managing executive for real estate at Lightstone Property. For higher income groups, this ratio was closer to 1.2 to 1. The property market intelligence provider said there were nearly 12 million households earning less than R13 000 a month, with just under 2.5 million properties available if households stuck to the guideline that they spend no more than a third of their income on housing. Kriek said that certain things need to change outside the property market before problems can be tackled from within, says Kriek. He said South Africa sorely needs economic growth driven by a consistent economic policy. Not only graft but also mismanagement of state and parastatal finances needs to stop. 'For example, paying CEOs of dysfunctional utilities more than the Prime Minister of the UK is wasteful and robs citizens of funds that could go towards housing,' says Kriek. He said the country needs structural reform that embraces deregulation, labour market reforms, trade liberalisation, privatisation or public-private partnerships, and tax reforms to encourage infrastructure investment. This may also require currency devaluation, which is a difficult political proposition and is unlikely to be popular with richer consumers. The MD lamented the fact that artisans are retiring faster than they can be replaced, which puts upward pressure on housing production costs. Most of South Africa's workforce is not well-suited to its services-oriented economy. It needs to reindustrialise to create jobs for the skills we have, encouraging technical trades, such as plumbers or electricians. He added that the country's restrictive labour policies make labour much more expensive than in competing economies, such as Bangladesh or Sri-Lankha. This could be resolved by devaluing the currency or reducing imports, or simply by liberalising labour laws. That might mean workers are paid less, but that more people will have jobs as a way of creating an economy that works for all – and this would be a temporary situation that will correct itself as more jobs are created. 'Making such changes at a national level will ensure that problems in the property market are not intractable,' says Kriek. 'But these necessary reforms will also go a long way toward rejigging the economy generally for the better.' Inside the property market, Kriek said several problems are making housing construction more costly and therefore less affordable when properties are sold. He said this was bureaucratic sprawl, NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard), fixed charges, small unit avoidance, slow land release, lender and landlord protection. Sentinel said if 80% of South Africans cannot afford a home, and developers are unwilling to meet the demand, something is terribly wrong. It said this was not an innovation or economic problem but a systemic one that the government needs to rectify. The problem is market design, and that is something for which we rely on government, and for which the political will must exist to take some tough decisions, he said. 'The private sector is profit-driven and the demand clearly exists, so it's up to the government to create the incentives and ease the restrictions that prevent the private sector from earning its bread in the provision of affordable housing,' says Kriek. 'There's more than enough money floating around – government just needs to create a market that provides incentives for the available resources to flow to where the demand already exists.' Independent Media Property

Newspaper headlines from around the world - Thursday, 31 July 2025
Newspaper headlines from around the world - Thursday, 31 July 2025

The South African

time40 minutes ago

  • The South African

Newspaper headlines from around the world - Thursday, 31 July 2025

A bundle of newspapers on the table. Image: The South African/CANVA Here are the stories that made headlines on the front pages of newspapers worldwide on Thursday, 31 July 2025. The New York Times front page reported that, with tariffs, Trump tests the global economy. The Washington Post reported that a host of failures were outlined in the crash. The Jerusalem Post's front page reported that Israel rejected Hamas's demand to exchange terrorists for bodies. China Daily's front page reported that the CPC plenum will focus on the next five-year plan. The Daily Mail's front page reported that victims of the October 7 atrocities told Keir Starmer there should be no recognition of a Palestinian state until every hostage is freed. The Guardian's front page reported that Palestine Action wins the right to challenge a ban in court. If you wish to stay up-to-date – for FREE – on the latest international and South African news, then bookmark The South African website for all that plus the latest in the world of finance, sport, lifestyle – and more. Did we mention it was 100% free to read …?

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store