The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) operates four television stations, three of which are free-to-air and one is a pay-TV channel. The SABC radio network operates 18 stations, one for each of the 11 official languages in South Africa, four community stations and three commercial stations.
Media assets
Television: SABC1, SABC2, SABC3, SABC News
Radio: Ikwekwezi FM, Lesedi FM, Ligwalagwala FM, Lotus FM, Motsweding FM, Munghana Lonene FM, Phalaphala FM, Radio 2000, RSG, SAfm, Thobela FM, Tru FM, Ukhozi FM, Umhlobo Wenene FM, 5FM, Channel Africa, Good Hope FM, Metro FM
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu)
Ownership and governance
SABC is governed by the Broadcasting Act, further amended. The main governing structure at SABC is its Board of Directors whose non-executive members are appointed by the President based on consultation with the National Assembly. The non-executive members then appoint the executive members in consultation with the communication minister following a public parliamentary inquiry. The board appoints the SABC’s CEO. The minister of communications as shareholder representative of the SABC sometimes tries to override the board to appoint their favorite candidates even though some of them are not qualified for the job.
An important development related to the independence of the SABC governing body was a 2017 court judgment in a case lodged by SOS, a local NGO, against the South African government after the representative minister interfered with the appointment of board members. The court held that the government was precluded from interfering with the SABC Board. The court also ordered the SABC to amend its memorandum of incorporation to remove the Minister from appointing people in the organization’s key positions (CEO, COO or CFO). As the court decision has not been appealed, it represents a key legal tool preventing state interference with the SABC board.
Despite these protections, however, the government continues to interfere with the independence of the SABC. Such interference was evident when the President Cyril Ramaphosa delayed the appointment of the new 12 SABC board members in the fall of 2022 due to technicalities. After facing pressure from civil society organizations, the President eventually appointed the board members in April 2023, six months later.
Source of funding and budget
In 2022, SABC had total revenue of ZAR 5.04bn (US$ 292m), according to the broadcaster’s latest annual report. The company incurred a loss of over ZAR 200m in 2022. Ad sales accounted for more than 74% of the total revenue.
SABC operated in 2021 with a budget of ZAR 4.9bn (US$ 307m), according to a company annual report. Nearly 70% of that was accounted for by advertising revenues, with license fees (paid by households) contributing another 16%. The broadcaster is supposed to pull in much larger revenues from license fees, but with a fee payment evasion rate of over 82% in 2021 (people refuse to pay the fee as they are unhappy with SABC’s service or simply because they can’t afford it), almost 14 percentage points higher than two years earlier, SABC has been faced with numerous financial problems in recent years. License fee generated some 16% of SABC’s total revenue in 2022.
As a result, the broadcaster constantly requires the government to step in and cover losses. In September 2019, the SABC received funding allocation letters from the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Finance that confirmed a government subsidy worth ZAR 3.2bn. With this government cash injection, the share of government funding in SABC was estimated to account for more than 50% of the total budget. However, the state subsidy was slashed in recent years, making the state budget account for less than 5% of SABC’s total budget in 2021 (hence the change in the SABC State Media Matrix Typology in 2022). In 2022, it further declined to some 3% of the total.
Two years ago or so, the government requested SABC’s management to draft a plan for financial sustainability whereas the SABC’s management has been calling on the government to scrap the license fee, which is an inadequate form of funding given the South African economic context, and switch to a model based on state funding. In July 2023, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies put forward in an official document a proposal to scotch the license fee and replace it with a ring-fenced tax that would be collected by the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS).
Editorial independence
The Broadcasting Act, which remains the SABC’s core founding statute, outlines the Charter of the SABC, which is a key document governing the operation of SABC. Subsection 6(3) of the Act provides that SABC, in pursuit of its objectives and in the exercise of its powers, enjoys freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence in line with the Constitution. At the same time, SABC has to comply with a set of broadcast license conditions that are monitored by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country’s broadcast regulator. Similar broadcast license conditions are imposed also on commercial broadcasters when they are licensed by ICASA to operate in South Africa.
The main domestic statute governing the editorial policy of SABC is a document known as the SABC Editorial Policies, which puts forward a series of editorial principles that SABC is supposed to abide by. These policies, launched in 2020, were developed after a comprehensive public consultation. The policies were deemed to have restored editorial independence at SABC.
However, the rules in place aimed at ensuring SABC’s independence are not properly implemented.
The public broadcaster is often captured by the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC). The broadcaster’s biased reporting is overseen by various pro-ANC managers and editors who often act in collusion with ministers from the party. In the past, especially under the rule of Jacob Zuma, SABC’s journalists were often fired following pressures from the government, state security and ruling party.
Such practices have continued after Zuma lost power. Editorial interference was uncovered in 2019 by a commission that found that “the specter of the ANC hovered over the newsroom.” The commission also revealed that the then-communications minister interfered regularly with the editorial decision-making process at SABC. Such allegations have continued in recent years.
In spite of that, however, we can generally conclude that SABC has enjoyed more editorial freedom after 2017. Its coverage of elections in 2019 and 2021 was balanced, for example, according to Media Monitoring Africa, an NGO. Yet, the broadcaster does not enjoy full editorial independence, as documented through our interviews with media experts and journalists in the country.
October 2023