The unbearable (near) impossibility of cancelling a TV licence

For the past 30 years or so, I’ve paid my TV licence. I remember people laughing at me for filling in the forms and diligently paying every year, first after receiving notices in the mail and now via SMS. 

I’ve not had a television set for some months, but my TV licence had been paid in full for the year – June 2023 to 2024 – and I was slow in cancelling it. Then came an opportunity to study abroad and, well, there seemed little point in continuing to pay the fee.

A quick check on how to cancel a licence on the SABC’s website: great, all that’s needed is an affidavit. So, with a police stamp on my statement saying the TV set had been sold and that I was going abroad to study, the email was fired off to [email protected] – the official contact point.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Not so fast.

“I regret that I am unable to process your request owing to insufficient particulars having been supplied,” was the response of the administrator: client correspondence, TV licences division, after a few days.

“Should a licence holder notify the SABC before departure that he/she would be leaving South Africa permanently, proof of emigration is required by way of a copy of travel or emigration documents reflecting the date of departure – such as an airline ticket, exit permit, visa, overseas work permit or contract, utility bill etc [SABC’s emphasis]. Any one of these documents would suffice. 

“If an emigrating licence holder takes his/her television set(s) along overseas, documentary proof thereof is required in the form of a copy of the shipping documents or manifest of the furniture removals or shipping company handling the transportation of goods to the destination abroad [SABC’s emphasis].”

Whoa, the potential contraventions of the Protection of Personal Information Act, never mind intrusion on privacy by asking for flight tickets, work contracts and more! Or the bizarreness – in the 30th year of South Africa’s constitutional democracy – of asking for an exit permit; an apartheid-era piece of paper needed to be allowed to leave the country.

My affidavit said that I had sold the television set and that I was going abroad to study. Nothing about emigrating! 

Did I enter this Kafkaesque nightmare because I was too honest? Perhaps I should have simply left it at, “Please immediately cancel my TV licence because I got rid of my television.” That, according to the TV licence website of the public broadcaster, is reason enough to cancel a TV licence.

“Q: WHEN IS A TV LICENCE NO LONGER REQUIRED? WHAT MUST ONE DO TO CANCEL A LICENCE? [SABC emphasis]

A: When one has sold or otherwise disposed of one’s television set(s) a TV licence is no longer required. The SABC must be notified on a prescribed form (affidavit) of the changed circumstances. No licence is cancelled while moneys are still outstanding on an account.”

But the demand for air tickets, exit permits, work contracts and so on was not the end of it. There’s more, as the saying goes – add a dash of threats.

“Should no such prescribed documentation be provided to the SABC, an account will not be closed and, should a licence holder return to South Africa at a later stage, his/her television licence would have remained active and would obviously reflect a substantial overdue balance.”

That’s shorthand for, we’ll ensure you’re blacklisted. And that would mean, for instance, not being able to sign a rental lease when I return or getting a cell phone contract.

I’m not alone. I’ve now heard stories where not even a death certificate was sufficient to persuade the SABC TV licences department to stop demanding the yearly fee. One person who’s been working in one of the Gulf states for six years keeps paying the TV licence just to avoid the hassles, according to the skinny.

But perhaps that’s the aim of the SABC behemoth – bully everyone into continuing to pay by making it as difficult and time-consuming as possible to cancel a TV licence, thereby providing another income stream for the state-owned entity.

Although to get more people to pay for a TV licence, and thus raise more revenue for the SABC, surely it’s common sense to make the system as user-friendly as possible – easy in, easy out. But for officialdom accustomed to wielding all the power and control, that’s perhaps a step too far.

In comparison, cancelling a streaming service is child’s – no, baby’s – play. 

My disorganised timing meant I had to pay another month, but I got a nice email saying, “Sorry to see you go...” Cancelling DStv wasn’t too much hassle, though getting a credit refunded when not on their debit order system requires queuing at the bank for that paper with a bank stamp to confirm account details.

Cancelling an SABC TV licence is an entirely different sort of red tape nightmare. 

I did respond to that Administrator: client correspondence, TV licences division, admittingly venting about being “appalled” that a sworn affidavit – as required by their website – was insufficient to cancel my TV licence, and taking exception to the threat of an accumulating “substantial overdue balance”. However, I attached to my response the university acceptance letter as proof of going abroad to study. That’s all I have. 

The Administrator: client correspondence, TV licences division – no individual email address; just [email protected] – never responded. Just silence; after all, they have you by the short and curlies.

By now, I’ve re-emailed [email protected], forwarding my initial response to the Administrator: client correspondence, TV licences division, again attaching the university acceptance letter and my affidavit about studying abroad and having sold my television set. 

I’m thinking maybe it’s time to get the lawyers involved. I’m also thinking how those who laughed at me all those decades ago for paying my TV licence are now having the last laugh. 

No one who dodged their TV licence commitments finds themselves enmeshed in this bureaucratic nightmare.

Still, in a potentially misplaced naive hope, I await confirmation of my licence cancellation. DM