THE interim chairwoman of the SABC, Irene Charnley, has defended her plan to stabilise the public broadcaster within the next five months, saying it would not affect the SABC’s ability to meet legislated requirements.
The SABC said last week it had come to an agreement with its former CEO, Dali Mpofu, who will collect an R11m settlement in return for dropping his legal challenges against the corporation. Mpofu was first suspended by the SABC’s previous board in May last year and his contract was later terminated.
This embroiled the SABC in a lengthy legal battle which was set to drag on for another two years and on which it had already spent R4,4m in legal fees, Charnley said on Friday.
She hit back at allegations that the SABC, which is not commissioning any new programming, was in danger of falling short of its local content requirements. “The SABC is way above local content requirements and will remain above them forever,” she said.
She said some programmes had been “deferred” from November to July next year, but this would not interfere with the SABC’s programming cycle. She promised the SABC would pay small production companies “as soon as possible”, saying it was not in the interest of the SABC for these companies to go under.
Interim board member Libby Lloyd, a former Independent Communications Authority of SA councillor , said she had been involved in drawing up the local content regulations for the SABC. Consequently, she would never agree to the SABC falling short on its licence conditions, local content regulations, or other legislative requirements.
Charnley has been adamant that the interim board’s first priority would be to stabilise the SABC, which recorded an R839m after-tax loss for the year to March.
Rehad Desai, chairman of the South African Screen Federation and a Television Industry Emergency Coalition member, warned that the dramatic slowdown in new productions since last September could result in the SABC having little to put on air in 2011, jeopardising its ability to meet local content quotas.
No new programmes have been commissioned this year and the SABC has battled to pay for programming that is already in production, with the independent production industry battling to stay afloat as a result. According to previous estimates, the SABC owed R60m to the industry, but this figure changes as payments fall due and are either paid or skipped.
“There’s been a huge reduction in production levels. It’s devastating,” Desai said. “At this rate there won’t be an industry to pick up in 2011. How do you plan to meet quotas in 2011 without (commissioning new programming)?
“At the same time, the interim board is adamant that they will balance the books. They might be able to in their tenure, but what will the new CEO and board be left with?”
Desai said the SABC was “not a business you can shut down and start up again” and was responsible for 70% of TV spending in the production industry. The industry was in distress, as 30% of spending comes from TV and another 30% from commercials, which have also slowed down dramatically.
“There is a need for an additional budget to be allocated by Treasury to the SABC, to allow it to find its feet. That needs to be ring-fenced for the production of local content, in order to meet viewers’ needs and keep the industry alive,” he said.
He did not think the SABC could meet local content requirements without repeats of programmes.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said it would be irresponsible to commission new programming while still paying off debt to the industry. Kganyago said the SABC had “substantially eroded” this debt already, while ensuring that its TV channels did not suffer.
He said only 1% of the content on air were programmes that had previously been aired.
“They (the independent producers) are trying to discredit everything we do, because they want us to do what they want to do,” he said.
“It’s very unfortunate that most of them depend entirely on the SABC, and that is not our fault. When we have trouble, it affects them automatically.”
newmarchj@bdfm.co.za