The SABC board and senior executives have told MPs that they have begun a process to consult labour unions over its intention to retrench permanent staffers and freelancers.
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The Competition Commission said on Monday that the controversial channel-supply agreement between MultiChoice and the SABC, signed in 2013, amounted to a merger.
The current board and CEO of the SABC are the strongest the public broadcaster has had in at least 15 years. They should be left to get on with the job of repairing the damage caused by their predecessors.
The SABC on Wednesday set out in detail why it needs to retrench staff, with group CEO Madoda Mxakwe saying the public broadcaster is “technically insolvent”.
The SABC is set to retrench almost a third of its workforce. The public broadcaster set out restructuring plans on Monday evening in which it said as many as 981 of its approximately 3 400 permanent employees may be retrenched.
A process called “digital restacking” could take up to two years to complete, delaying the allocation of prime radio frequency spectrum to telecommunications operators to 2022.
Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane said government has set July 2020 as the firm and final deadline by which time analogue terrestrial television broadcasts must be switched off.
As much as it pulls at our heartstrings, the SABC’s sad attempts to invoke “Living the legacy” as a slogan should not sway government from ruthlessly resetting its focus on more crucial projects.
Government will give vouchers to indigent households to buy set-top boxes from commercial providers rather than continuing with a plan to run the project itself.
Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane has welcomed the decision by the constitutional court, which grants the Competition Commission jurisdiction to investigate the deal signed between the SABC and MultiChoice.