SABC hits R976m loss

THE SABC is bleeding money, with the public broadcaster suffering another financial loss of R976 million – more than double last year’s loss.

This comes after Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu said in the annual report (with audited financial statements) tabled in Parliament yesterday that the SABC’s books were in bad shape. He said the SABC was insolvent and unable to pay its debts.

He gave the SABC an adverse audit opinion and said the corporation had not been managing its books well.

The R976m financial loss comes after the SABC incurred a loss of R411m last year, another loss of R395m the year before and a more than R500m loss in 2014.

The auditor-general also found the SABC had irregular expenditure of more than R4.4 billion, but said this could be understated as the public broadcaster did not provide information on this.

The SABC said in the report it was investigating all cases of irregular expenditure.

It would continue to take action on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

It was revealed last week that the SABC had requested a bailout of R3bn from the National Treasury.

Eight years ago, the National Treasury gave the SABC a guarantee of R1bn when it was in the red.

The public broadcaster managed to raise the money from Nedbank, and it repaid the loan in a few years.

However, the auditorgeneral painted a bleak future for the SABC unless it sorted out its finances.

The SABC is still waiting for the Treasury to approve the bailout.