DA calls on SABC to make turnaround plan public in the wake of possible retrenchments

18 September 2018

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the SABC to urgently make their turnaround strategy public following reports of possible retrenchments at the public broadcaster.

Now is not the time for a veil of secrecy.

It is vital that the SABC takes the public into its confidence and explains, in full, the reasons for its reported plan to retrench staff.

Reports that up to 800 hardworking and dedicated SABC employees are facing the possibility of losing their jobs is heartbreaking. These are people who have school fees, mortgages, rent, and other living expenses that will struggle as they join South Africa’s long unemployment queue.

The DA notes comments by the Minister of Communications, Nomvula Mokonyane, regarding her opposition to these possible retrenchments and caution her against interfering in SABC affairs.

The minister, in a statement, expressed “her concerns with what she believes is an odd approach by the board of the SABC, which ignores the advice and support of the shareholder in this necessary and critical process of turning the SABC around”.

The minister seems to conveniently forget that she is, by law, not allowed to interfere in the SABC’s affairs.

She also seems to have expedient amnesia of her party, the ANC, and its complicity in the financial crisis the SABC finds itself in. It was the ANC’s incessant political interference, cadre deployment, and protection of Hlaudi Motsoeneng that lost the SABC billions, and the public broadcaster now finds itself unable to pay its creditors and considering retrenching staff.

The current SABC board, although not responsible for the crisis, took on the role of serving at the public broadcaster fully aware of the monumental task ahead of them. We want to hear the board talking solutions and assuring the public that the financial status of the SABC will be taken from red to black.

We trust that the board will take South Africa into its confidence and explain the rationale of their turnaround strategy to assure us that it is ceased with fixing the financial crisis at the SABC. Indeed, retrenchments should be an absolute last resort.

Issued by Phumzile Van Damme, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, 18 September 2018