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- The SABC's CFO has revealed the group is beset by absent leadership and is running on 'autopilot'.
- There is concern it may be headed for business rescue, much like the ailing Post Office.
- After a R3.2 billion bailout in 2019, in the form of a loan guarantee, the public broadcaster is expected to report hefty losses.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page
The SABC has been silent after its chief financial officer revealed that the struggling South African public broadcaster is hampered by absent leadership with "no sense of urgency in the executive team", is running "on autopilot" and is once again barrelling towards "day zero" where it won't be able to pay salaries and might be placed in business rescue.
After mounting losses in the past decade, the SABC is set to record a massive financial loss of over R1 billion for its 2022/23 financial year, which has mushroomed from an estimated R608 million loss that was projected in December 2022.
Rank-and-file SABC staffers as well as production companies doing business with the broadcaster are wondering whether salaries will remain paid and if a new round of retrenchments, or yet another turnaround plan, might be on the cards.
After a R3.2 billion government bailout in 2019 in the form of a loan guarantee, the SABC – which had to function without a SABC board for over half a year until a new one was appointed in April – is once again struggling to pay bills, with warning lights flickering over its ongoing ability to pay staff in the coming months.
Exodus
The SABC has also been losing senior staff. After his five-year term ended in July, former CEO Madoda Mxakwe was replaced by the SABC’s head of radio, Nada Wotshela, as acting CEO, after the broadcaster failed to start the process in time to find and appoint a new CEO.
Advocate Ntuthuzelo Vanara, the SABC's head of legal, has resigned, and will exit at the end of July, while Reggie Nxumalo resigned as the SABC's head of sales. SABC3 is also again without a channel head. Yolanda van Biljon, the SABC's chief financial officer, whose five-year term also expired, has had her contract extended for another six months.
By May, the SABC hadn't paid Sentech - the parastatal signal distributer carrying the SABC's various TV and radio signals - its monthly instalments for a year. In addition, the minister of communications and digital technologies revealed that the SABC was owed over R44.2 billion in outstanding TV licence payments it will likely never be able to recoup.
The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that Van Biljon, in a memo on 6 June to the new SABC board chairperson Khathutshelo Ramukumba, warned that the broadcaster was once again teetering on the brink of financial collapse and might end up being placed in business rescue similar to the South African Post Office.
Staff in the dark
She said [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".
According to Van Biljon, without urgent intervention, the SABC will once again find itself unable to pay bills and suppliers in the coming months.
Van Biljon told the SABC board that "leadership is absent currently and there is no cohesion or sense of urgency in the executive team. The corporation is on autopilot."
In response to this, Mmoni Seapolelo, acting group executive for corporate affairs, told News24 that "... the SABC is not commenting on this matter".
Hannes du Buisson, president of the Bemawu trade union, told SABC News that the broadcaster's staff hadn't received any communication from management about the possibility that it might be placed in business rescue.
In the latter part of 2020, the SABC started a retrenchment process with 877 permanent staffers who ultimately lost their jobs during the 2020/21 financial year. The SABC’s wage bill is by far its biggest single expense.
