SABC deal to collect licence fees set aside

The High Court in Johannesburg has set aside the SABC’s lucrative debt collection contract with LornaVision.

The High Court in Johannesburg has set aside the SABC’s controversial and lucrative debt-collection contract with LornaVision.

The SABC says more action is to come as it seeks to clean house following Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s tumultuous tenure, during which the broadcaster incurred huge losses and recorded high levels of wasteful and irregular expenditure.

The SABC has been outsourcing its TV licence fee collection to LornaVision, despite 164 people working in its TV licence department.

In May, the SABC’s interim board told Parliament that LornaVision had failed to meet its collection target by more than 50%.

James Aguma, the SABC’s former acting CEO and permanent chief financial officer, awarded the contract to LornaVision in 2015 without a tender process. Aguma resigned before a disciplinary hearing into his conduct was held.

LornaVision was contracted by the SABC to create and implement a pilot debt-collection system and would receive a 10% cut of 10,000 TV licence renewals a month.

The ad hoc committee set up to look into the SABC mess said in its January report: “This contract did not meet the requirements of a deviation….”

City Press reported earlier in July that LornaVision argued in court papers that it had met its contractual obligations to collect about R300m in outstanding TV licence fees.

The LornaVision contract is one of many the interim board will be seeking to end and refer to authorities as part of a broader forensic probe. LornaVision was ordered to pay costs.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said on Sunday that the contract would be terminated immediately unless LornaVision appealed.

The SABC welcomed the court ruling and said it looked forward to restoring its direct relationship with its TV licence holders.

Kganyago said: “There are many other contracts to look at based on the ad hoc committee recommendations.”

The SABC’s content-sharing agreement with MultiChoice, as well as the SekelaXabiso and Vision View contracts, were among the suspicious transactions identified for review by the ad hoc committee.

The committee said in its report that the SABC was well equipped to provide the services procured from SekelaXabiso; that there were possible irregularities around the manner in which the Vision View agreement, which cost the SABC R42m, was awarded; and that the agreement with MultiChoice was not transparent.