Should the controversial new Draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill (which was released last week by the Department of Communications without going through the traditional white paper, green paper and legislation processes) become law, it will give the Minister far more control over broadcasting than before.
Minister Siphiwe Nyanda will be able to personally appoint three new statutory bodies – a Local Content Advisory Board, a Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Board and a Panel to evaluate the performance of the SABC board.
Industry response to the bill has been one of alarm as the government already exerts huge influence over crisis-ridden public broadcaster SABC as it is. As per the Bill, the Minister would be able to make regulations on any public service broadcasting matter and would be able to exert undue influence on the three above bodies.
Yet the Department of Communications director-general Mamodopi Mohlala was quoted in Business Day as saying the Bill only gives the Minister an avenue to step in if there is a crisis and that it is not for him to take over the running of the SABC. She promised that there would still be lots of public discussion before the Bill became law. The deadline for public feedback is 7 December.
Much has already been said in the media about the Bill’s proposed doing away of TV licence feels and imposing 1% levy on citizens (in addition to their personal tax) to finance public service broadcasting. Mohlala is already reportedly in talks with the South African Revenue Service to determine an efficient collection system.
The Democratic Allaince has expressed concern that South African consumers could not afford more tax, especially since tax payers’ money was already being used to bail out the SABC from its R840m debt.
Another aspect of the Bill is that community broadcasters be run “in partnership with municipalities’, thereby doing away with their independent status.
To access the Bill click on http://www.doc.gov.za/images/stories/1-32663%2028-10%20comm.pdf
