ANC to be blamed for mess at the SABC
RECENTLY the SABC announced it would cut as many as 2000 jobs. In a country with an unemployment rate of 27.5%, this is an especially tragic turn of events.
Worse, most of the people who will be retrenched have done nothing to deserve this. These are mothers and fathers who work hard to provide for their families, and they are the ones who will ultimately suffer.
Instead, those in charge of the years of corruption and looting at the SABC will walk away scot-free.
Like a multi-layered cake, the SABC has had many years of bad management, financial irregularities and exorbitant salaries for incompetent people. But unlike a delicious birthday cake, this one leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
It would be easy to blame the state of the financially crippled SABC on a few rotten apples in the organisation, but the reality is the ANC and its cronies are to blame for the collapse of the state broadcaster.
It is hypocritical that ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said the party will not “allow any retrenchments”. He is the very reason why SABC staff face retrenchment.
R3.1 billion, or 42%, of the SABC’s budget is spent on employees and one doesn’t need to be an economist to understand why the entity is technically insolvent.
Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane revealed in Parliament that the salaries of the chief executive, chief operating officer and chief financial officer are R5.1 million, R4m and R3m respectively. The total remuneration for executive packages thus stands at R12.1m.
Furthermore, R60m was spent on irregular appointments and promotions done without proper processes during the Hlaudi Motsoeneng era. This one-man wrecking ball was just the tip of the iceberg.
Former ministers of communication Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Dina Pule and Faith Muthambi, along with former president Jacob Zuma and then Free State ANC chairperson Ace Magashule, all played a role in appointing him and other cronies into senior positions at the SABC, and on its board.
Who can forget the destruction caused by Ellen Tshabalala (chairperson from 2013 to 2015), Ben Ngubane (January 2010 to March 2013) and Mbulaheni Maguvhe (2015-17)?
Even after former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s explosive 2014 report, in which she exposed systemic corporate governance failures on Motsoeneng’s watch, he was still rewarded with a top job. In 2016 he went further and awarded himself a bonus of R11m, while the SABC’s debt amounts to R1.3bn.
In August, the board told Parliament’s communications committee that it owed creditors R694m and had only R26m in the bank at the end of the month.
It’s now public knowledge that the SABC lost its independence during the Zuma presidency and the problems of the entity can be traced back to the failing ANC.
The state broadcaster is supposed to be independent, but years of systemic corruption caused by the ruling party made the two inseparable.
The proposed retrenchments can’t be ascribed to a tough economic climate, but to the bulging coffers of the ANC cronies. Now ordinary workers will pay the price; people who were not part of the destruction of the SABC.
It’s a sad day when the people who are responsible for a problem have the audacity to speak out on the problem.
The ANC has no right to dictate to the SABC. It’s precisely because they have dictated to the SABC for many years that we are in this mess.