So the SABC has got a new trick up its sleeve.
The broadcaster is hoping Parliament will enact new laws that will see us paying an additional tax for using streaming services like Showmax and Netflix.
They still call it a TV licence, but it has long since stopped being that simple.
I have over the years made my feelings about the SABC amply clear. It is a bottomless pit that sucks up millions of rands in our taxes.
While all its competitors survive on advertising revenue only, the public broadcaster is unable to do so with a double revenue stream – licence fees and advertising.
And when things go wrong, as they inevitably do, it still has the security of a government financial safety net to rely on.
Like I’ve said before, if this was a regular company that we were invested in, we would’ve pulled out ages ago.
But that’s not a choice government gives us.
Instead, the SABC (and many other parastatals) gets used as an ANC cadre piggy bank.
It gets hammered open with frustrating regularity and executives make off with golden handshakes, knowing we have to fill it again.
It’s clear as daylight that the SABC is a poison chalice in need of urgent restructuring.
We need to demand that professionals are brought in to run the place like a business that’s required to turn a profit for its investors.
Because if they get this new law passed and Netflix is forced to collect this new tax from us, it will amount to millions in yet another revenue stream that the SABC will find even more creative ways to waste with even more impunity.