SABC crisis: South Africa needs its public broadcaster – but who is going to fund it?

Here we are again.

The long-running crisis at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is back on the agenda after the communications minister, Solly Malatsi, withdrew the SABC bill from parliament in mid-November, to first develop a funding model for inclusion.

The broadcaster, founded in the 1930s, served as propaganda organ for the apartheid government before being transformed to serve the new democracy after 1994. Its charter grants it freedom of expression, while requiring it to reflect a full range of views, and encourage South African cultural expression.