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A thread on the history of how the SABC was reformed in 1994, and why its current model is so difficult (some would say fundamentally impossible) to make work:
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The SABC was one of the most prolific media companies of oppressive propoganda in history during apartheid. This included mass distributing radios across South Africa to create a dominant media for black people so that the SABC could spread lies
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In 1994, the government recognised that the SABC needed to be repurposed for good, to provide content that provided crucial information for living in society. The content also needed to represent all South Africans (in all common languages) and promote messages of unity
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Private media and advertising in South Africa is generally dominated by white, English and Afrikaans speaking, city-living people. In general, private media and advertising prioritises servicing these kinds of people. The SABC's mandate is absolutely crucial in such a context
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The SABC's model was partially based on the BBC model, in which a public broadcaster is expected to provide content that is good for society, even if it is not attractive to advertising. This content mandate is possible because the BBC is fully taxpayer-funded. SABC is not
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Crucially, the SABC was reformed in 1994 at a time when the country was desperately short of money and had many government goals to achieve. So the SABC was expected to cover much of its costs through advertising. So SABC is trapped between public good content, and revenue
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We are seeing the ultimate crisis of the hybrid model. Eventually government needs to choose. Either change SABC to a full BBC model, where taxes pay for useful public good content in all common languages, or leave it needing to make ad revenue, and lose some of that content
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