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Juli Kilian, MP and COPE representative on the Communication Portfolio committee said COPE was shocked about the recently published Public Service Broadcasting Bill which seeks to scrap TV licences and to burden taxpayers with an extra undefined, dedicated tax to fund the public broadcaster.

"The sudden about turn by the Minister of Communication is inexplicable - barely 2 months earlier, when he gazetted the increased TV licence tariffs, the Minister argued that "a strong funding model with a strong attachment to the public (was instrumental in delivering on the SABC mandate) and (that) television licence represents(sic) this."

Either the Minister was not aware of the basic tenets of the proposed new funding model, or he was deliberately misleading the public. This about turn represents yet another step to total ANC control of another public institution by creating irrevocable dependence on state (ANC) patronage.

COPE rejects the trend towards increased taxes for hardworking, overburdened South Africans and will insist on further detail regarding the proposed new funding model. Kilian said it was unlikely that the National Treasury will accept the proposed dedicated fund for the SABC.

Furthermore, it is unacceptable that the already over stretched tax payers have to dig deeper into their pockets to paper over the cracks of mismanagement, fraud and incompetence of the national broadcaster. Given the proposed additional powers of the Minister, it will no doubt place the already biased public broadcaster under tighter control of the ruling party.

While COPE agrees that the SABC has a vital role to fulfil in South Africa to educate and to inform the public, we believe that the public broadcaster should essentially be funded by advertisements and by the public, with contributions from the national budget to subsidise the poorest of the poor and to cover shortfalls. The SABC should be a public broadcaster and not a state broadcaster as will now be the case, Kilian said.

The proposed new tax is no more than a bailout of a grossly mismanaged institution, and represents another blow to consumers who also have to foot the bill for the ESKOM fiasco.

Given the current economic climate, this new tax coupled with the proposed electricity tariff increases and the escalating job losses, this proposal does not augur well for ordinary South Africans.

The SABC is reneging on its mandate as public broadcaster in terms of its political bias towards the ruling alliance and its inability to support the local content producers. It has failed miserably in terms of governance and giving value to the tax payer.

COPE calls on South Africans to voice their strong objection to this draconian measure aimed at funding the mouthpiece of the ruling party.