SABC’s ‘bloated’ head count
Something had to be done to reduce the “bloated personnel” at the loss-making SABC and to ensure proper supervision of procurement within the organisation, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said yesterday.
The corporate governance of the public broadcaster was also fraught with deficiencies, the minister said at a media briefing of the economic cluster of departments.
The SABC’s financial woes were highlighted earlier this month when it was announced that a loss of R784m was expected for the financial year to end March. Banks had withdrawn their guarantees and overdraft facilities for the organisation, which has had to ask the Treasury for a guarantee so that it can deal with the cash crisis.
Matsepe-Casaburri said her department would support this request, which the Treasury has not decided upon. She said the SABC had started to cut costs and that this would have to include cutting the number of personnel, which several reports indicated was “bloated”. Uncontrolled procurement practices had also pushed up costs.
So far the SABC has insisted that no permanent staff will lose their jobs, though the numbers of contract personnel will be cut. About half the broadcaster’s 4000 staff are freelancers and contract workers.
The minister said she had recently received three reports on the SABC. One was requested by the government from board members and middle managers, and a draft was submitted this week.
Accounting firm Deloitte had also submitted a report on how to improve corporate governance structures, which the minister admitted were not adequate. This report highlighted the lack of proper procedures in human resource management.
The SABC board had also asked law firm Bowman Gilfillan to submit a report.
Matsepe-Casaburri said financial support would be directed only at the SABC’s public broadcasting activities, not its commercial operations, to ensure a level playing field in the industry. She stressed that her ability to intervene in the SABC was limited by law to protect the institution from political interference.
While admitting that an unsustainable cost structure had contributed to the SABC’s troubles, she said the financial crisis had also played its part. About R400m of this year’s loss was due to shrinking advertising revenue, which contributes 86% of the corporation’s funding.
SABC executives told the media recently that expenses had grown substantially, from R4,382bn last year to R5,595bn.
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