A couple of Cape Town "entrepreneurs" have hit on a scheme to make thousands of rands. They are selling smartcard access to a television channel broadcasting hardcore pornography.
The channel, called Don't Panic, gives viewers explicit sexual material - of the sort normally banned in South Africa - 24 hours a day.
For just R2 000 for a smartcard and by using a normal DStv decoder you can tune in.
Pornographic broadcasting has been hotly debated in recent months with the free-to-air television channel e.tv having strict restrictions placed on it regarding the times and nature of sexual material broadcast.
e.tv has been broadcasting late-night soft porn films such as the Emanuelle series, to the dismay of some members of society.
But these films will pale into insignificance compared with the hardcore material accessible via smartcard technology.
There are plans for two more such channels in the next year or two, which are expected to be in French with English subtitles.
DStv decoders and dishes are needed to access the channel - just remove the DStv card and slot in the porn card.
But Multichoice, the company that supplies the decoders to subscribers, is not impressed, saying it is "inappropriate and improper" that their decoders are being used in this way. The company has launched an investigation into the matter.
Local agent Richard Carne who, with his son Bill, sells the porn smartcards, said he had agreed to act as an agent for the British company because "business is business".
"If I had to rely on the business I got here, I'd go hungry. We hardly sell or install new decoders anymore. I just told my conscience to shut up and get on with it. What people get up to in their bedrooms is their business."
Carne said he hoped to sell about 1 000 smartcards by the end of the year.
Ivor Chetty of the Film and Publication Board said broadcasting pornography via satellite was a grey area that the Broadcasting Act did not anticipate.
"We have no jurisdiction over people who broadcast from outside the country. It is beyond our control," Chetty said.
Broadcasting Complaints Commission chairperson Kobus van Rooyen said it was difficult for the commission to take action: "We deal with local broadcasts and that is our only mandate."