{"id":578914,"date":"2025-01-19T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=578914"},"modified":"2025-01-19T13:25:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T11:25:59","slug":"sabc-falling-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/578914-sabc-falling-apart.html","title":{"rendered":"SABC falling apart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) 28-story Radio Park office block is falling apart with lifts that are beyond repair, forcing staff and freelancers to climb the stairs daily, Rapport reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the broken lifts, which last functioned in 2018, staff have complained about outdated toilet facilities and poorly lit stairs in the dilapidated building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are escalators in the building, staff say they are perpetually unavailable and cordoned off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, some of the biggest radio stations in the country can’t invite guests for interviews, and those on lower floors need to warn interviewees about travelling up stairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include RSG on the first floor, Channel Africa on the second floor, and SAfm on the sixth floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One worker told Rapport that lifts to the fourteenth floor did not work and only express lifts that serve the fifteenth to twenty-seventh floors, where management and top executives are housed, worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They added that ceiling panels were falling out and broadcasting had become a challenge because of old infrastructure, creating a sense of no leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo said the state broadcaster would ensure the building remains safe for staff and visitors, acknowledging that the lifts are a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the state broadcaster is struggling to cope with the financial pressure of its internal issues, it has several other economic problems to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these is the money owed to state-owned signal distributor Sentech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentech CFO Rudzani Rasikhinya recently told the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development and Trade<\/a> that the SABC has yet to settle over R1 billion in debt accumulated since January 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentech threatened the state broadcaster to cut off its broadcast signal due to non-payment of its debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, communications minister Solly Malatsi intervened by facilitating a deal through which Sentech agreed not to cut the SABC’s broadcast signals for at least two months while exploring options for a long-term sustainability model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 25 November, the SABC owed Sentech R1.12 billion, of which R1.05 billion dates back to the beginning of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasikhinya pointed out that this debt is constantly increasing. The SABC’s monthly billing of R68 million is in a shortfall of R17 million, as the state broadcaster only pays R51 million monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The SABC wanted the debt to be converted into a long-term loan, but the board did not approve that,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We then proposed a payment plan to the SABC with payments starting in this quarter. However, we are yet to receive any payments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasikhinya highlighted that 94% of Sentech’s revenue is generated from its media broadcasting business, as it was established to be a signal distributor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TV Licence failure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The SABC has had significant trouble with its funding model over recent years, with the TV licence reaching a non-compliance rate of 87% in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is formulating the SABC Bill to solve this issue, which will replace the Broadcasting Act of 1999 and introduce a new funding model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Communications Minister Solly Malatsi withdrew the bill, first presented to parliament in 2023, in November, stating that it was “insufficient” to mitigate the state broadcaster’s dire financial sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This caused great controversy as many believed the bill should have been enacted and amended accordingly. However, Malatsi remains steadfast in his decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, the minister said he would revise the SABC funding model<\/a> so that the entity can sustain itself while the bill is in development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SABC’s Radio Park office block is falling apart with broken lifts, escalators, and outdated toilets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341175,"featured_media":578919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[89970,361,97680,2760,76862],"class_list":["post-578914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-radio-park","tag-sabc","tag-sabc-bill","tag-sentech","tag-solly-malatsi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578930,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578914\/revisions\/578930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}