It is by law, that every person who owns a TV in South Africa must pay an annual fee of R265, however, if you no longer want to use your TV set to receive free-to-air channels or no longer have one, you have a chance to cancel your TV licence.
SABC stated that anyone found in possession of a television set without having a valid TV licence would be liable for payment of the annual licence fee, plus a penalty of double the licence fee, quoted.
All your VCRs and PC TV cards with tuners are regarded as a TV set. A majority of people are no longer paying their TV licences, this has been seeing by a huge decline in payments over the years.
This decline is most probably caused by an increase of online streaming services such as Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime Video, Viu, YouTube, and many others. To top it all, it would make no sense to a South African to pay both a dstv subscription as well as a TV license.
There are steps required for one to be exempt from watching SABC channels.
Steps to cancel your TV licence
- The easiest way is to sell your TV, or get rid of it, that’s only if you don’t use it. (This is unlikely to happen, I know you need your TV)
- If you are keeping your TV, remove the signal receiever, and use it for streaming services only.
- Here’s where it gets a little complicated, once the signal receiever or tuner has been removed, you must provide a written notice to SABC.
- The notice must be supported with documents from a reputable repairer or installer, in a form of an invoice, letter or a receipt.
- R300 payments is required for a TV licence cancelation.
- An authorized agent will come to your address to assess the TV
- To avoid unnecessary documentation, purchase a TV without a tuner.
“On receipt of confirmation from the agent that the applicant has no television receiving equipment in his possession, he will be exempted from payment of licence fees for the rest of the current licensing period,”
“Should a licence holder thereafter require such exemption to be extended, written application by way of an affidavit confirming that the applicant still has no TV receiving equipment must be made on an annual basis three months before the end of each licence year.”
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