MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) – The perception that television licences of selected people get thrown away because they need not be paid, probably has a less sinister explanation.

When collecting her post at the local post office, a pensioner caught sight of a pile of envelopes neatly held together by a rubber band. She lifted them out of the rubbish bin out of curiosity and found them all to be TV licence accounts.

“I checked the names … and found only names of the disadvantaged,” the pensioner writes, describing herself as a “hard pressed pensioner of the paying type”.

She wondered if there was a ‘dark angel’ watching over a part of the population which believe in paying nothing for services rendered. One account, for example, was R2101.90 in arrears whereas the current tariff for a TV licence is R225 per year and R65 for a concessionary licence, for example for a pensioner.

At the Post Office, the post that gets thrown into the rubbish bin is handled by the public only. By that time, it has already gone through the system and is no longer handled by officials.

A spokesperson of the post office said that they were not allowed to talk to the media but agreed to check the post box number on the account. The post box recently changed owners. It was quite probable that the new owner looked at the pile of envelopes and decided that he didn’t know any of the people and threw the pile into the rubbish bin. It apparently happens often that post box owners put their post box at the disposal of a number of people, which explains the pile tied with a rubber band. On the public side of the post boxes, members of the public cannot be prevented from discarding the envelopes that they don’t want to take home.

The fact still remains that a pensioner found that 20 TV viewers definitely did not receive their accounts and in all probability were pirate viewers.

The Television Licences Department stated that it has implemented several strategies aimed at cutting the piracy rate and substantially increasing the revenue from TV Licences. The strategy includes engaging the services of a country-wide tracking company to track down pirate viewers, stricter credit control and intensified legal action. According to the new Broadcasting Act, No 4 of 1999, as amended, anyone found guilty in court of failing to comply with the law may be sentenced to a fine of R500 or to imprisonment for up to six months or both. Anyone found without a valid TV licence would be liable for payment of the annual licence fee, plus a penalty of double the licence fee.