public broadcaster

Job cuts are looming at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as the new board and CEO Solly Mokoetle, strive to slash costs and reduce the bloated head count of nearly four thousand employees.

Meanwhile, the SABC is appealing to the Department of Communications and Parliament’s communications committee to help it get the auditor-general to undertake a comprehensive forensic audit to clean up the rot in the organisation because it cannot pay for such an audit itself.

SABC board members have scorned weekend reports suggesting there is a rift between the new board and the ­public broadcaster’s new chief executive, Solly Mokoetle.

According to a Sunday Times report the new board is set to challenge Mokoetle’s appointment by the SABC’s interim board.

The Sunday Times quoted anonymous board members saying they would act on the Gobodo findings, allegedly that Mokoetle had failed in his corporate governance duties.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has launched a campaign on its website calling for the public to petition the director- general of the Department of Communications, Mamodupi Mohlala, to allow more time to comment on the controversial Public Service Broadcast Bill.

The Department of Communications has announced that the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will receive a bailout of more than R1 billion.

Communications Minister, Siphiwe Nyanda, points out that, “We hope that the financial injection by government will help the SABC meet its urgent needs, such as payment of outstanding debts and other matters of priority."

An urgent meeting was held this week between the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) interim board and frustrated independent television producers to discuss a new plan to pay producers.

The meeting come after the public broadcaster, which owes independent producers R60 million, failed to meet its first payment agreements in September. It was agreed at this week’s meeting that R10.8 million will be ring-fenced and used to pay producers owed under R200 000, who were hardest hit as they tended to be the smaller companies.

The Department of Communications has submitted the Public Service Broadcasting Bill, which seeks to abolish television licences and introduce other changes to public broadcasting in South Africa.

The bill, should it be approved, will establish a Public Service Broadcasting Fund and also establish an international broadcasting services division within the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) and transfer Channel Africa to this new operating unit.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) interim board has suspended four members of the broadcaster’s executive management, pending the outcome of internal disciplinary processes.

The four are the chief financial officer, Robin Nicholson, the group executive: content enterprises, Mvuzo Mbebe, the head of audience services, Anton Heunis, and the head of group procurement, Mabela Satekge.

The interim board chairperson, Irene Charnley, says that the board is committed to ensuring that the correct disciplinary process was followed.