I have met a lot of people who are stuck with broken TV sets but are still paying their TV license out of FEAR because that is the only thing SABC uses to motivate people to pay theirs claiming it is the right thing to do.
The most disturbing fact is that even the elderly are expected to pay? But it is good that if your TV was stolen, permanently damaged or you got rid of it (something I think we should contemplate on) you can apply for cancelation of your license.
The application process is a bit tricky, first you can’t cancel your account unless it is fully paid. That brings me to this question, how do they calculate the interest because it moves from R200 to R500 in seconds? Then you have to produce proof that indeed you not in a possession of a TV set, which is a complicated process, if your TV was stolen you are required to provide a criminal case number and date of the theft, if you sold it you have to provide the details of the person who bought it, and if it broken am sorry but you still have to spent a lot of money in the process.
So the SABC says you have to provide proof that indeed your TV set is permanently damaged, apparently there are SABC accredited technicians who can check your TV set and write down such a report, the question is where do I find them? Or you can go to your nearest police station and write an affidavit stating your TV set is broken. There is also a form to be complete which can be obtained from your nearest SABC offices and for me that means I have to travel 250 kilometers but I will do it to stop paying money I don’t have.
