SABC cutting jobs
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is planning to retrench up to 180 sales staffers as part of a restructuring exercise to address the broadcaster’s financial challenges.
In response to reports about the layoffs, the broadcaster issued a statement on Thursday, 14 August 2025, announcing its new sales operating model.
“The Corporation is not engaged in a process aimed at reducing headcount in the sales division. Instead, the Corporation has initiated an organisation design review to ensure the sales division is fit for purpose,” it said.
“The intent of this process is not to cut costs, but to realign roles, reorganise functions, and create efficiencies that better serve our mandate and commercial objectives.”
It adds that the final structure may result in the same number of sales roles, or even an increase, depending on the outcome of consultation processes.
“All affected employees will have the opportunity to be considered for roles in the new structure,” the SABC said.
The statement mentions explicitly that the restructuring isn’t aimed at reducing headcount. However, broadcasting journalist Thinus Ferreira reports that the move could see the SABC cut 180 sales jobs.
If the plans go ahead, these staffers will have 28 November 2025 as their last working day at the public broadcaster.
According to Ferreira, the potential retrenchments include roles in the SABC’s enterprise sales, corporate sales, government sales, SMME, digital sales, sales operations, and Ad-venture sales divisions.
The broadcaster told the Broadcast, Electronic, Media, and Allied Workers Union (BEMAWU) that the job cuts are part of a contemplated restructuring exercise.
It said the exercise is aimed at addressing the SABC’s financial challenges and ensuring long-term sustainability.
The SABC told BEMAWU that the sales division’s underperformance has had an adverse knock-on effect on the public broadcaster, threatening its sustainability.
It said it had already considered alternatives like cost-cutting through various austerity measures, adding that the restructuring and possible retrenchments are necessary.
The public broadcaster isn’t cutting TV licence roles. These are expected to remain unaffected by the retrenchment process.
SABC jobs bloodbath in 2020 and 2021
South Africa’s public broadcaster last embarked on significant job cuts in 2020 and 2021. The cuts saw hundreds of employees leave the SABC and included gutting its publicity division.
In June 2020, a confidential document titled “Reimagine the SABC through a new operating model” revealed that the broadcaster planned retrenchments to cut its salary bill by R700 million.
It said the move would help create a more sustainable organisation in the face of dwindling advertising revenues.
“We have determined that, in order to break even with the current fiscal year, a R700-million reduction in employee compensation is necessary,” the document said.
The South African government blocked previous attempts by the SABC to retrench staff to cut costs.
In 2018, the broadcaster announced plans to retrench 981 permanent employees and 1,200 freelancers to save costs.
In 2019, the issue entered the spotlight again when the public broadcaster announced plans to close five offices, cut a third of its staff, and reduce management by 37%.
However, the government intervened, and the job cuts didn’t transpire. Instead, the SABC relied on a R3.2-billion taxpayer bailout to continue operating.
The SABC said the June 2020 plan to cut jobs included implementing a new “Target Operating Model” to become financially stable and self-sufficient.
Around the time, the public broadcaster felt the effects of the ongoing economic downturn, shifting consumer needs, and rapid technological advancement.
“The newly-developed target operating model enables the SABC to reinvent itself, review its business model and revenue portfolio, and to holistically reassess its input costs as well as its resource capacity,” it said.
Then SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe said the process was aimed at “ensuring the long-term existence of a resilient and sustainable public broadcaster.”
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