The SABC needs adequate and sustainable funding to fulfil its public mandate

The SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and Moxii Africa (formerly Media Monitoring Africa) are deeply concerned about the continued lack of adequate funding for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to fulfil its public service mandate, particularly ahead of the 2026 Local Government Elections.

The SABC has indicated that it requires R120 million in additional funding to ensure comprehensive coverage of the 2026 Local Government Elections. The need for this funding has also been raised in Parliament, with the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies calling for financial support for the public broadcaster to enable it to properly plan and deliver adequate election coverage.

The SOS Coalition and Moxii Africa believe that this is not simply a matter of providing additional resources to the public broadcaster. It is essentially about protecting citizens’ right to access information and ensuring meaningful participation in South Africa’s democracy. 

As the country’s public broadcaster, the SABC has a unique responsibility to ensure that voters across South Africa have access to reliable, accurate and impartial information about the elections. Its extensive radio and television services provide access to audiences across the country, including communities that may not have reliable or affordable access to digital platforms.  

Importantly, the SABC’s ability to communicate with South Africans in their own languages is central to this mandate. Its services reach audiences across South Africa’s linguistic diversity, making it particularly important during elections. 

The 2026 Local Government Elections are scheduled for 4 November 2026, with 674 political parties registered for political participation, which is the highest since the inaugural 1994 elections. The elections are also taking place in an increasingly competitive political environment, particularly following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) after the 2024 national elections. This makes access to reliable, impartial and accessible election information even more important, as voters will be required to navigate a more diverse and competitive political landscape.

As such, the SABC’s responsibility extends beyond reporting on election campaigns and results. The SABC has a responsibility to provide voters with the information they need to make informed decisions regarding the political parties and independent candidates contesting the elections, their policies and manifestos, their priorities and proposed solutions and what they are offering voters.

The SABC’s coverage should include opportunities for parties and independent candidates to explain their positions on issues that directly affect people’s lives, such as service delivery, employment, housing, healthcare, education, electricity, water and sanitation, public safety and other matters of public concern; across different interviews, debates and public engagements, allowing voters to compare the different positions and make an informed electoral choice, come November 4^th. 

The SABC also has a responsibility to provide clear, accessible voter education on how the electoral system works, what voters are voting for, who is eligible to vote, where and how to vote, and the role and responsibilities of elected representatives.

Further, the SABC should also ensure that election coverage reflects the experiences of communities across the country, going beyond urban areas to extensively cover rural areas, informal settlements, and other marginalised groups, shining a spotlight on their challenges and seeking contesting candidates’ views on how they plan to address those challenges.

The SABC needs the necessary resources to fulfil its public service mandate in relation to election coverage by ensuring that all voters, regardless of language, location, class  or political knowledge, have access to electoral information necessary to participate meaningfully in democratic processes. 

Moxii Africa has monitored the SABC’s election coverage since South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, and will continue to monitor the public broadcaster’s performance during the 2026 Local Government Elections. This monitoring will assess how effectively the SABC fulfils its public service mandate, including, fairness of coverage, diversity, accessibility and quality of its election coverage. 

Moxii Africa and the SOS Coalition are particularly concerned that the SABC must be able to fulfil this critical democratic role without the systemic, institutional and funding challenges that constrain its ability to deliver on its public service mandate.

It is a well-known fact that the SABC’s public service mandate is inadequately funded and the SABC cannot function like this, something must change. 

However, the problem is no longer simply that the public service mandate is underfunded; the broader institutional conditions  and the policy environment under which the SABC is expected to fulfil this mandate are becoming increasingly unsustainable. 

The delay in finalising the Draft White Paper on Audio-Visual Media Services and Online Safety continue to create an environment that is inconducive for the SABC to thrive. 

Institutional deterioration also persists, as recently highlighted by Steven Grootes in the Daily Maverick. His stark assessment of the decline of an institution that remains essential to South Africa’s democracy should not be taken lightly. The SABC’s deterioration must be recognised as a public crisis requiring urgent government intervention, rather than being treated simply as a problem that the public broadcaster can resolve through greater commercialisation.

Election coverage is a public service, not merely a commercial product. The SABC should not be forced to rely primarily on advertising and other commercial revenues to finance its public mandate. 

The SOS Coalition and Moxii Africa therefore call on the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to urgently finalise SABC’s funding model, and the Draft White Paper to ensure adequate funding for the SABC and a conducive policy environment. 

We further call on the National Treasury to recognise the critical role the SABC plays in South Africa’s democracy and to provide the public broadcaster with the funding required to fulfil its mandate. Credible information is the engine of any democracy. Without a strong, independent and adequately funded public broadcaster, millions of South Africans,  particularly those in rural and underserved communities risk being deprived of the information they need to participate meaningfully in our democracy.

It is for this reason that the SOS Coalition will once again host its annual Public Service Media Symposium on 8 and 9 September in Johannesburg, bringing together diverse stakeholders to examine the challenges facing the SABC in depth and to identify practical solutions for strengthening the public broadcaster. The SABC belongs to all South Africans, and we all have a role to play in ensuring that it is strengthened and remains capable of serving the public interest. We invite you to join this important conversation and contribute to shaping a stronger, more sustainable SABC. RSVP here. Let us work together for a better SABC.

For media inquires 

Please contact: Uyanda Siyotula

SOS National Coordinator 

natcoord@soscoalition.org.za

060 691 2462

Lister Rikhotso

Program Manager – Monitoring, Research and Analysis

Moxii Africa

listerr@mma.org.za

011 788 1278