
20 March, 2017 - 06:50
The SABC is in chaos, with the finances of the state broadcaster in such disarray that a halt has been called to producing new TV shows and staff members fear they won't be paid. By Charl Blignaut
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said this week that the organisation's finances were under pressure, with the SABC now funding its activities from its reserves , and put the blame on the global economy, the media, the parliamentary inquiry into the fitness of the SABC board to hold office and a lack of government support.
However, numerous senior insiders say the situation is far worse.
We're not even sure [if] we can pay salaries at month's end, said an insider close to the treasury division.
Hlaudi's [Motsoeneng] chickens have come home to roost ... It's worse than [the SABC's financial collapse in] 2008 - but this time it's not likely that anyone will bail us out, said another.
However, Kganyago insisted salaries would be paid and denied the crisis was worse than in 2008.
We collect revenue every day. Yes, our reserves are down, but we are able to meet all our commitments, he said.
A human capital management crisis
None of the highly placed insiders City Press spoke to wished to be named for fear of losing their jobs. They all said that posts were now frozen.
The problem is that Hlaudi went on a drive to make freelancers permanent and now we are stuck with an inflated human resources (HR) bill in finance, risk, HR, the executive, news, sport and marketing. They don't know what to do with the people because they can't be moved to critical operational areas such as TV and sales because they lack the necessary skills, said one.
Many of those promised permanent jobs received only fixed-term contracts, and now, says Hannes du Buisson, president of the Broadcasting, Electronic, Media and Allied Workers' Union, those contracts are not being renewed and, increasingly, former staffers are heading to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) because they had reasonable expectations of their contracts being renewed.
We have so far filed three disputes for freelancers who were given fixed-term contracts by Motsoeneng, said Du Buisson.
Our members had been working towards promotions, but the posts they sought are no longer open.
Tuwani Gumani, general secretary of the Media Workers' Association of SA, said the SABC had cut back hard on security staff.
We have repeatedly warned the SABC that it is facing a human capital management crisis. People are now being reduced in tranches, he said.
Regarding former freelancers, Gumani said: We predict there will be a substantial number of CCMA cases coming.
About the frozen posts, Kganyago said yesterday: There are a lot of people in the building, some are not utilised fully ... And they are asking where can they convert people's skills to fit the needs of the positions, because the wage bill is already more than it should be. So, until they utilise these people properly, these vacancies will remain frozen.
He said the SABC would be hiring only where scarce skills were required.
Regarding a surge in CCMA cases, he said: We do not have control over people going to the CCMA.
Growing discontent
Meanwhile, there is growing discontent over acting group chief executive officer (CEO) James Aguma, whose term Communications Minister Faith Muthambi extended for three months in January. According to the SABC's most recent annual report, Aguma received a 67.25% increase in salary last year, which pushed his package from R1.3m to nearly R2.2m per year. Aguma also collected a 13th cheque of R181 000 last December.
Kganyago said Aguma's was not an unreasonably high increase .
He was a manager, then he became chief financial officer and then acting CEO. Of course he had to get increases. Over a long period, we did not pay 13th cheques. But then we realised that this was going against our conditions of employment. And the board approved this, he said.
TV content producers are jumpy. Three insiders said no new TV shows were being commissioned and all the SABC will be doing is renewing existing contracts .
Said one insider: A memo was circulated recently to say that the SABC couldn't meet its commitments, so producers would not receive mid-month payments, which is standard when they first sign contracts. This may have an adverse impact on SABC3's relaunch in April.
Another insider said: SABC1 and SABC2 will be okay, but there is talk that SABC3 won't make it. They are making no money and no one knows how long they can stay on air.
One TV content producer said: I was in ... a meeting with senior TV people because they had stopped paying on a project I am attached to. They say it is just a delay. They assured me all contracts would be paid out, but there would be no new commissions. SABC3 is flat broke.
Kganyago responded: I don't know what they mean. Yes, SABC3 is not reaching its targets - that is why it is relaunching. Next week, we will be showcasing the new programmes, including local content.
Regarding a freeze on new shows, Kganyago said: That is not true. In January, we put out new content on SABC2. In February, we did the same for SABC1. In March, it is SABC3.
www.news24.com
Television
Africa South Africa
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
January 8, 2024
Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...
07/05/2026
February 9, 2024
Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning pioneer i...
07/05/2026
March 20, 2024
NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...
07/05/2026
April 1, 2025
CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...
07/05/2026
June 15, 2025
Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...
07/05/2026
June 15, 2025
Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...
07/05/2026
July 1, 2025
Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...
07/05/2026
July 1, 2025
Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...
07/05/2026
July 3, 2025
Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...
07/05/2026
September 1, 2025
IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...
07/05/2026
April 17, 2026
LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...
07/05/2026
April 23, 2026
NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of
Uncharted with Ray G...
07/05/2026
RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
06/05/2026
Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...
06/05/2026
New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool
NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...
06/05/2026
Popular mixing & routing software overhauled
Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...
06/05/2026
New SOS Video Feature
Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...
06/05/2026
Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...
06/05/2026
For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...
06/05/2026
ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing
Brie Clayton May 6, 2026
0 Comments
ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a nove...
06/05/2026
Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Med...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...