The South African public broadcaster remains mired in financial trouble and is owed a whopping R25 588 801 443 by people who have South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) TV licences but who refuse to pay their annual fees.

South Africa's latest minister of communications – the 10th minister of communications in 10 years – Nomvula Mokonyane, has replied to Phumzile Van Damme, the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament who wanted to know what the outstanding amount is that the SABC is due in SABC TV licence fees, what amount of money the SABC wrote off in unpaid debt and what the SABC's total number of SABC TV licence holders are.

Mokonyane revealed that the SABC is owed a staggering R25 588 801 443 by April 2017 and that the SABC wrote off a massive R4.5-billion due to "invalid" accounts in the 2016/2017 financial year.

Shockingly, less than a third of people with SABC TV licences are bothering to pay their annual fees.

By April 2017 the SABC had just over 9-million SABC TV licence holders, however licence fees of just 2.6-million have been paid in full by that time.