SABC blackout threat
UNION: MEMBERS THREATEN TO STRIKE, DISRUPT BROADCASTING SERVICE Support from EFF, Cope, ANC, ANC Youth League at lunch hour picket.
Astrike is looming at the SABC, including a broadcast blackout, as staff fight back against the impending retrenchments of hundreds of employees at the cash-strapped public broadcaster.
The Communications Workers Unions (CWU) threatened to blackout SABC as part of its strike to protect the jobs of its members who were facing retrenchments.
“It’s not a threat, we mean business,” CWU president Clyde Mervin said during a media briefing.
“If they are not going to withdraw the letters by 5pm [on
Thursday], we will black out the SABC at 1pm [on Friday].”
Mervin said the union had the support of the workers at SABC and trade union federation Cosatu and its affi liates in the planned action.
CWU general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said they resolved to take to the streets to demand a stop to the planned retrenchments of 400 and the withdrawal of redundancy letters issued to employees.
“[Board chair, Bongumusa] Makhathini must test us; we will make sure nothing goes on air. We will be using every arsenal we have to attack,” he said.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi accused the SABC board of not understanding the broadcaster’s public mandate and vowed that Cosatu would stand by the CWU and the affected workers.
“This is not going to happen. They must know that if they are retrenching a worker they are retrenching a worker and his family. This is a bad decision,” she said.
A lunchtime picket by SABC workers was held outside the corporation’s Auckland Park head office yesterday. They were joined by the Congress of the People spokesperson Dennis Bloem and party executive member Pakes Dikgetsi and members of the ANC, the ANC Youth League and the Economic Freedom Fighters. Throughout the week, staff used their live broadcasts to raise concern about the conduct of the SABC executives and board members. Throughout their reporting, they exposed management as people who did not know what they were doing and who had no understanding of the corporation they were running.
SABC’s Morning Live cohosts, Sakina Kamwendo and Leanne Manas, hit hard at the executive management and board members during their shows in the past few days. Yesterday, Kamwendo asked tough questions from Makhathini about his knowledge of the goings on at the corporation.
She said the chair himself and his board did not understand what they were doing and that in many instances there were staff shortages at the broadcaster.
“How often are you here at Auckland Park Mr Makhathini?” Kamwendo asked in a question that exposed how he and his team rarely, if at all, visit the broadcaster they were leading.
She invited Makhathini and his board to visit and take a walk on the studio floors to see for themselves the staff shortages that included unmanned cameras and many cameras operated by one person.
“Come though Mr Makhathini, you don’t understand. Your executive doesn’t understand the operations at SABC,” Kamwendo said.
They are retrenching This is a bad decision