On 27 August 2018, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) held its Annual General Meeting to scrutinise and adopt the annual report and financials of the SABC for the financial year 2017/18.
The SABC is one of the key institutional pillars of our democracy, delivering essential content to millions of South Africans on multiple platforms. To this end, the SABC contributes to the strengthening of democracy by promoting nation building and social cohesion, in line with Outcome 14 of the National Development Plan (NDP) and through compelling and accessible local content programmes.
In delivering on its mandate, the SABC’s eighteen (18) radio stations and three (3) television channels exceeded their local content and genre quotas, as set by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The SABC’s mandate to broadcast sports of national interest was also realised despite the rising costs of sports rights and the absence of a dedicated sports channel.
Consistently, there has been concerns raised on the financial viability of the broadcaster within the current regulatory and legal frameworks which place an obligation on the SABC to pursue and deliver on a public mandate that is largely unfunded and further compromised by the low-levels of income generated from TV-License fees.
Equally, there are historical governance and financial management issues that have previously been identified at the SABC. These were vented in the Parliamentary Inquiry into the SABC, the Public Protectors Report and other on-going investigations by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU).
In the 2017/18 financial year, the SABC had a net-loss of R622 million, compared to R977 million in the 2016/17 financial year. As presented in the Annual Report, there has been significant progress made on clearing all internal and external audit findings to improve internal controls.
The Auditor-General has highlighted seriously the viability of the SABC as a going-concern and to this end, as the shareholder working with the Board, our engagements with the National Treasury have been concluded and the National Treasury has granted consent for the SABC to increase its borrowing limits from the capital markets in line with the Public Finance Management Act and the Broadcasting Act.
We do believe that we have the right skills in the Board and Management to drive a robust turn-around strategy that will lead the broadcaster on a new path towards a public-broadcaster that embodies sound corporate and financial management, embraces new technologies and digitisation and is geared towards increasing revenue and diversifying income streams.
We are pleased that the current Board of the SABC has ably began to set the SABC on a path to stability and recovery. To date, the SABC has successfully appointed competent persons to the positions of Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Group Chief Operations Officer (GCOO), Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO), Head of News and Group Executive for Corporate Affairs and Marketing.
The above appointments reflect the commitment by the Board and the shareholder to ensure that we stabilise governance at the broadcaster and together we will soon finalise a Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) between the Minister and the Board and thereafter we will unveil a turn-around strategy for the SABC, which I can confirm has been presented to me earlier this afternoon for my consideration.
We have also put together a Turn-Around Task Team comprising the Department of Communication, National Treasury and the SABC. The National Treasury has assigned a turn-around specialist to look into the strategy.
Such a strategy will provide a holistic assessment of the Broadcaster and identify means and ways to guarantee the future sustainability of the SABC.
At this stage, the Board and Management have presented to myself and the Portfolio Committee on the current financial challenges at the SABC and have assured us that employees of the Broadcaster will continue to receive their salaries as per the norm and without prejudice.
Equally, suppliers owed by the broadcaster have been in engagements with the SABC and there has been progress in effecting payments to creditors. Monies raised through the process consented to by the National Treasury will be utilised to pay creditors, including independent producers, Sentech and South African Football Association.
Secondly, these funds will be utilised to acquire new content to replenish the current content offering so as to attract new audiences, thus generating commercial revenues.
As a responsible government, we will not allow the SABC to collapse and are committed to providing the Board and Management with our continued support to ensure that this national asset continues to serve millions of South Africans with information, knowledge and entertainment.
Lastly, together with the SABC we will on Thursday 06 September 2018, host a Colloquium under the theme ‘Building a Resilient Public Broadcaster’ at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Johannesburg. The main objective of the colloquium is to engage and give input on the public broadcaster we need towards the digital, multi-channel environment of the future.
Various stakeholders have participated in the broadcasting policy review process and submissions have been received. We are determined to create an enabling environment for broadcasting to thrive in South Africa and especially the SABC and to provide the country with the best broadcasting services and content within the digital environment.
Media Enquiries:
Mlimandlela Ndamase (Ministerial Spokesperson)
Cell: 083 480 0014
