SABC seeks to spread election word far and wide

“This is a significant reduction in the manner we covered elections. This indicates a particular focus on cost-containment initiatives even on those important public service mandate which we are enjoined to cover,” he said.

In 2016, the public broadcaster reportedly budgeted R40m for the local government elections.

Maroleng also said that next year there would not only be better coverage of elections, but a better and planned coverage of them.

“We recently indicated that we have acquired new satellite-gathering vans that allow us to deploy our staff into further-flung areas of South Africa to give a voice to the voiceless and to provide coverage that is relevant to the people of South Africa,” he said.

The 2019 election coverage plan comes at a time the Independent Communications Authority of SA is amending the party election broadcasts (PEBs) and political adverts next year. The regulatory authority published draft regulations in August for the public to make written submissions. This came after the SABC complained that there were political parties contesting the elections that did not use any of their allocated PEB slots.

“The failure of political parties to utilise their allocated PEB slots impacts negatively on the broadcasting service licensees, especially television, as they schedule their programming ahead of time and when the political parties do not submit a PEB they have to find a replacement in a short space of time.”

Icasa said it reviewed the regulations to assess their relevance to the current political landscape.