Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Don't Be Caught Without One

You might be interested to know that here in South Africa, you must have a TV license in order to have a TV. This license must be renewed every year, and you will be hounded starting three months prior to your renewal date to "urgently renew" said license.

I went to the post office today and was pleased to find out that you can pay your TV license renewal fee (or apply for a new TV license) at the post office. They even provide a handy brochure with Frequently Asked Questions, such as:
  • What is a TV set?
  • Do unmarried partners sharing a residence need separate TV licenses if they have more than one TV set?
  • What happens if the cheque I use to pay my TV license fee is dishonoured by the bank?
  • What must I do if I don't want to pay a TV license?
You might be pleased to know that if a house has more than one TV set, only one license is needed, provided that all of the TVs are used by members of the family only (which prompted the next FAQ, "Who are regarded as members of the family?")

You might also be interested to know that a TV license inspector can, at any time, enter any premise to carry out an inspection. He/she has the right to request you to produce your TV license, ID document and TV license account number, as well as the actual TV for inspection.

Sadly, if you don't want to pay a TV license, the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) must be satisfied that you have no such equipment in your possession (see FAQ, "What is a TV set?").

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Annie! How absolutely frustrating!

jonna said...

Sometime in the next 12 months (Lord Willing) my family will be moving to the Pretoria area. I don't remember how I first found your blog, but I had sent your blog address to myself in an email titled "list of websites I might need" several months ago and just came across it again today. I am curious about where exactly you live and if you have an email address where I might be able to contact you to ask questions prior to and after our move.
Blessings on you as you are helping out in such a tragic situation right now.

Anna said...

Hi Jonna,

You can contact me at ericksonza@gmail.com

jonna said...

Thanks. I'll be doing that soon!

Tammy and Joe said...

Thanks for this post. We read a little bit about the TV license in a booklet from our new school, but it's nice to see it spelled out a bit more clearly. We don't watch TV in China at all, just stream our US programs on the internet. Not sure what we'll decide about S.A.

Anna said...

You could stream, but internet is expensive and bandwidth is extremely slow. Our aDSL is capped at 40kbs/second. No, that's not a typo, and we pay about US$70/month for that amazing service. :-)