Members of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies have expressed concern over the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) lack of funding certainty ahead of the local government elections on 4 November. They warned that financial constraints could affect the public broadcaster’s ability to fulfil its public service mandate.
The concern followed a briefing from the SABC on its preparedness for the elections. The public broadcaster told the committee that it had resubmitted a R120 million funding application to National Treasury on 5 August 2026 and was awaiting final confirmation.
The SABC said its election planning was at an advanced stage and that it had mobilised resources. However, it has not yet reached final operational readiness. The SABC said that it would cover the elections regardless of the funding outcome, but the scale, depth, technical capability and resilience of its coverage would ultimately depend on the funding made available.
Committee members were unhappy about the uncertainty surrounding the availability of the additional funding required to support the SABC’s election coverage. They suggested that the funding challenge is more than simply an operational or financial matter for the public broadcaster; it has a direct impact on citizens’ access to information during the electoral process.
Committee members emphasised the SABC’s public service responsibility to provide equitable coverage of election campaigns and were concerned that inadequate funding could constrain the broadcaster’s ability to provide comprehensive information on political parties and candidates.
They also emphasised the point that receiving full and fair election coverage is fundamental to citizens’ constitutional right to receive information necessary to participate meaningfully in the democratic process and make informed decisions when casting their votes.
SABC Group Chief Executive Officer Ms Nomsa Chabeli told the committee that the funding issue had implications for several areas of the broadcaster’s election-readiness plans. These include editorial operations, national deployment, broadcast infrastructure and technology, results and digital platforms, compliance and operational support, as well as testing and contingency arrangements.
She explained that the available funding would determine the extent to which the SABC could deploy personnel across provinces, provide the necessary logistics and strengthen its technology and infrastructure at the Independent Electoral Commission’s Results Operations Centre.
She said that funding would also affect the broadcaster’s ability to integrate election-related systems and provide results feeds, data, analytics and digital platforms. Ms Chabeli also mentioned that funding certainty allows the SABC to conduct rehearsals and put in place fallback and contingency arrangements to strengthen the resilience of its election operations.
Despite the uncertainty, Ms Chabeli gave the committee an assurance that the SABC would cover the elections under either funding scenario.
The SABC’s preparedness is particularly significant given the geographical scale of the local government elections and the public broadcaster’s role in providing election-related information to audiences across South Africa. The funding issue therefore raised broader questions for the committee about the sustainability of the SABC’s public service mandate and its ability to meet its responsibilities during major national and local democratic processes.
Members’ concerns come as election preparations enter a critical phase, with the SABC indicating that several operational decisions depend on funding certainty. The public broadcaster said the scale of its final deployment would depend on what resources could still be sourced, integrated, tested and formally accepted before election day.
In the same meeting, the committee also received a briefing from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa on its preparedness for the elections, as part of the committee’s oversight of the communications sector ahead of the 4 November polls.
Justice Molafo
2 October 2026
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