The SABC is ready to launch its new 24-hour news channel, Group CEO Lulama Makhobo said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“We are ready… the team is busy transforming how it operates to fit in with a 24-hour service approach,” she said.<\/p>\n
The news channel would first be available on DSTV and later be offered on digital terrestrial television when the signal came on.<\/p>\n
Makhobo said the news channel would be multilingual.<\/p>\n
“We are not seeing our …channel as being purely South African. We see it as a Pan African channel which will bring much more regularly news from the rest of the continent that affect South Africa,” she said.<\/p>\n
DSTV had contributed a substantial amount of money which would be paid to the SABC every month over the next five years.<\/p>\n
“We are hoping we will be able to spread to the rest of the continent and anywhere else where Multichoice currently operates,” she said.<\/p>\n
At the beginning, the channel would start with fresh news for six hours and “rapidly” grow to the 24-hour mark.<\/p>\n
More revenue would come from advertising as the channel gathered momentum.<\/p>\n
Earlier Makhobo confirmed that she had submitted her medical certificate, required as proof for her absence during the disciplinary hearing of news head Phil Molefe.<\/p>\n
“The medical certificate was submitted. I was indeed very ill. The board was informed and agreed I did what I needed to do, and the board was comfortable that I had done what I needed to do,” she said.<\/p>\n
There had been reports that Makhobo was ordered by the chair of the disciplinary hearing to provide proof as to why she had been absent.<\/p>\n
Thami Ka Plaatjie, SABC board deputy chair, said the board was aware of Makhobo’s illness.<\/p>\n
“We think that is unfair for people to say (the medical certificate) was demanded by the chairperson of the hearing,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said the public broadcaster was in a financially healthy position.<\/p>\n
“That is why we emphasised the fact that we are able to meet the government guarantees. We speak with a liquid amount of R1 billion in our account. We are stable,” Ka Plaatjie said.<\/p>\n
Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the acting COO, echoed Ka Plaatjie’s views.<\/p>\n
“She (Makhobo) has turned the corner at the SABC. I know people are talking but the reality at the SABC is that we have turned the corner… it is a different animal now.”<\/p>\n
Motsoeneng said the SABC would retain talent by giving its contracted workers three year-contracts instead of the traditional 12 months.<\/p>\n
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