Mounting worries over the SABC

The SABC may once again be teetering on the edge of financial collapse, yet the broadcaster’s board is still not available to communicate with its staff or the unions.

The Sunday Times reported (paywall) at the weekend that SABC chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon, in a memo on 6 June to the new SABC board chair Khathutshelo Ramukumba, warned that the broadcaster faced a very real risk of being placed into business rescue similar to the Post Office.

After a R3.2-billion government bailout in 2019 in the form of a loan guarantee, the SABC – which had to function without a board for more than half a year until a new one was appointed in April – is once again struggling to pay its debts.

President Cyril Ramaphosa delayed his appointment of a new SABC board, reportedly because parliament’s recommendation of three additional candidates meant he would have been acting unlawfully had he upheld its recommendations. The Broadcasting Act permits the president to appoint 12 people to the board, while the national assembly had submitted 15 names.

Meanwhile, losses have increased and the SABC is expected to post a financial loss of more than R1-billion for the 2022/2023 financial year, which has grown from an estimated R608-million loss reported in the previous year.

The public broadcaster is owed R44.2-billion in licence fees alone – if only 10% of these fees were collected, its financial situation could be ameliorated but “there seems to be little accountability for the failure by top management to carry out basic administration like licence collection”, said Broadcasting, Electronic, Media and Allied Workers Union (Bemawu) president Hannes du Buisson in an interview with the SABC’s Morning Live.

Uncertainty

SABC employees as well as production companies doing business with the broadcaster are wondering whether salaries will be paid, if a new round of retrenchments will be instituted, or yet another turnaround plan might be on the cards. Reports suggest that the SABC could suffer the same fate as the state-owned Post Office, which has been placed into business rescue.

Du Buisson said that at the weekend, the union was inundated with calls from SABC staff feeling anxious and insecure about their positions at the SABC. “They were asking: should we resign? Will we be paid? What about our pensions?”

He said the union had been unable to establish contact with the chairman of the board and had written a letter to the company secretary to set up a meeting but had so far had no response.

“It is of concern that the SABC is once again in this situation. We are seeking an urgent meeting with the board to have clarity on this process. We believe it is not an official SABC position at this point in time to go for business rescue, but the information comes from a letter sent from the CFO to the chairperson of the board in June.”

Van Biljon said in her letter that “business rescue is going to become a very real consideration unless other sources of funding or support are identified and confirmed as a matter of urgency in the medium to longer term”.

She said that without urgent intervention, the SABC will once again find itself unable to pay bills and suppliers in the coming months and told the SABC board: “Leadership is absent currently, and there is no cohesion or sense of urgency in the executive team. The corporation is on autopilot.”

TechCentral was not able to get comment from the SABC, despite repeated attempts to do so.

But Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird told TechCentral that he will be “very surprised” if the board doesn’t meet the unions and, indeed, all staff soon.

Bird said there are three key factors contributing to the SABC’s financial position.

“The first is that the state failed to appoint a board for six months, which prevented key decisions from being made around contracts and all sorts of other things. Secondly, the analogue switch-off saw the SABC lose 40% of its audience [in provinces where the signal has been switched off] and it relies on commercial revenue for 80% of its funding. This  was catastrophic. It was also clearly poorly planned and shockingly implemented by government.”

The SABC is operating on a funding model determined in the late 1990s when there was no Netflix or streaming

“The SABC is operating on a funding model determined in the late 1990s when there was no Netflix or streaming. To expect it to operate in an outdated framework is simply embarrassing,” Bird said.

It remains to be seen what will transpire for the beleaguered public broadcaster.

Du Buisson said the SABC is different from the Post Office or South African Airways because “there is no other public broadcaster”.

“There are other entities to take up the slack for the Post Office or SAA, but not for the SABC. If there is pressure from government, and people with vision are appointed, perhaps the SABC can still become profitable,” he said.  – © 2023 NewsCentral Media

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