The SABC board might need government assistance to deal with retrenchment at the public broadcaster, SABC news reported on Tuesday. Board chairman Ben Ngubane told parliament’s portfolio committee on communication that head count was high.

“We need support, we will need to reduce the number of people [and] we appeal to political parties not to make this a political football, this is serious,” he said. He said the SABC would offer packages to promote early and voluntary retirement. “We are on a positive roll, we need the continuing support of the committee,” he said.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the public broadcaster reported to the committee that it had made significant progress in terms of turning the SABC around. “We reported how far we have gone to meeting the conditions imposed by the government guarantee, including that we have performed better financially than targets set in the guarantee.”

He said the SABC presented its plans for its continued recovery and stabilisation. These included requests for further funding from government for its digital terrestrial television roll-out, delivering on the sports broadcasting mandate and establishing a 24-hour news channel.

“We believe we are on a path towards establishing a public broadcaster that is vibrant, that serves the public interest and that invests in quality content,” said Kganyago. — Sapa