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In a speech at the Commonwealth Broadcasting Conference today, the Director-General of the Department of Communications, Mamodupi Mohala, spoke out in favour of the proposed 1% tax to fund the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and stated that the tax proposal would now apparently not only see funding via this tax go to the SABC as the public broadcaster, but also to other commercial stations.

These comments are problematic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the SABC itself is not in favour of the imposition of this tax. In their submission on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill (PSB) wherein the tax proposal is contained, the SABC interim board indicated that it was in favour of rather strengthening the SABC's capacity to collect license fees rather than the imposition of a tax. It is therefore unclear why Mohala would be publicly speak out in support of a funding proposal that the SABC itself is not in favour of.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has repeatedly raised concerns about the Department of Communications' apparent desire to micro-manage the SABC. While the Department of Communications is the largest shareholder of the SABC, decisions about its functions is the sole competency area of its board and not the department. The latest involvement flies in the face of the of the statement issued by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Barbara Hogan, warning state-owned entities to remain accountable to their boards rather than Ministers.

It is imperative that the SABC remains independent and free of political control to ensure that it provides fair and unbiased programming. Increased political control of the SABC would result in the return it to its former status as the mouthpiece of the government of the day, as was the case during Apartheid.

Secondly, the Minister of Finance was unequivocal in his rejection of the proposed imposition of this tax. In a reply to a DA parliamentary question in November 2009, Minister Gordhan stated that the proposal "is not prudent" and "is not under consideration by the National Treasury". Mohala's public support of the proposal can be viewed as nothing more than open defiance of National Treasury.

Thirdly, Mohala's assertion that the proposed tax would not only be used to fund the SABC but also ‘other commercial stations' is quite nonsensical -- public funds cannot be used for the purposes of funding private commercial interests, and the implication is possibly that, by funding private entities, the Minister of Communications hopes to be able to hold them hostage, and thus exert influence upon them.

The DA will be writing to the Minister of Communications in order to gain clarity on what his stance is on the matter.