SABC headed for collapse unless wage bill is trimmed
SABC EXECUTIVES have warned that the technically insolvent national public broadcaster could be heading for collapse if it does not cut its wage bill.
This as the organisation announced its plan for massive retrenchments which will see about 981 permanent employees and 1 200 freelancers lose their jobs, a move that has outraged unions and political parties.
Chief executive Madoda Mxakwe said the corporation was so financially troubled that it could no longer fulfil its monthly obligations.
“We are technically insolvent as the SABC. We are not able to fulfil our monthly obligations. The threat of commercial insolvency is indeed increasing significantly,” he said.
Mxakwe said the R3.1 billion wage bill, made up 42% of the R7.2bn total expenditure, was not sustainable, and job cuts would be inevitable even in the face of political opposition.
“The decision that we will take in doing this may not be acceptable but we know that it is in the best interest of the SABC. We have a choice to say, do we do what is right in terms of taking these decisions, or do we let the SABC collapse? This is a very significant institution in our country to let it collapse and we have to do what is right.”
Mxakwe said the broadcaster faced a possibility of being unable to fulfil its public mandate if it was not restructured into a commercially viable organisation.
“In the past three years, the cost of the public mandate has been sitting at R4.2bn, and we have done projections to say in the next few years what would be the cost, and it is sitting at about R6.2bn,” he said.
Group executive for human resources Jonathan Thekiso said a probe into jobs had established duplications of responsibilities, where one permanent staff member was doing a job while three freelancers were hired to do the same job.
The broadcaster is also in the process of recouping more than R6m in irregular expenditure.
Thekiso said the SABC was targeting those who were either appointed (or received salary increments irregularly) by previous executives, including controversial former chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who is also being legally pursued.
“There is a legal process happening between the former COO and the organisation and the figure I have seen is around R22m, which is legal costs, and the other figure is R50m, which I believe is a bonus.
“Those numbers may form part of the R60m. We are not going to go into finer details at this point, suffice to say that there are irregularities that we have identified and we are focusing on those,” he said.
The EFF has called for an urgent intervention by Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane by giving the SABC a guarantee letter to enable it to secure funds that can save it from retrenching thousands of workers.