Cape Town - The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has shown a healthy financial position at the end of quarter three, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi told the Portfolio Committee on Communications on Tuesday.
“We are particularly encouraged by the performance of the SABC during the period under review. At the end quarter three, the SABC showed a healthy financial position and it was able to honour its financial obligations, including the payment of royalties.
“It had cash and cash reserves of R1 011 billion. A sum of R978 million of these funds were invested with the big five banks. We are encouraged by this financial position of the SABC,” she said.
Minister Muthambi and the entities under the department are currently briefing the Committee on the 2014/15 first, second and third quarterly performance and expenditure reports.
The entities are the SABC, Film and Publications Board (FPB) Brand SA, Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA).
However, Minister Muthambi said revenue and income earned for the quarter under review fell short of budget by 9% to R207.3 million.
This can be attributed to the unfavourable performances in revenue from advertising, sponsorship, trade exchanges, license fees, content and commercial exploitation, other revenues and other income.
Expenditure was maintained below target as a result of the cost containment measure that was implemented.
“During the quarter under review, the SABC continued to deliver on its public service mandate. Of importance to note is the fact that the SABC has during the month of October 2014 issued its Television Request for Proposals (RFP) Book with a total value of more than R600 million, making it the largest RFP book issued by the SABC for local content.
The Minister said the public broadcaster struggled to improve TV audience share during the period under review and it remained at 49% against a target of 52%.
24-hour SABC News Channel
With regard to the 24-hour SABC News Channel 404, Minister Muthambi said the public broadcaster continued to improve its performance during the period under review.
“The Channel’s audience share continued to grow with a daily average audience of 7 428 viewers. It is now the second most watched news channel on the DSTV bouquet.
“On the other hand, the Corporation was able to achieve radio audience share target of 68.8% and the actual achievement was 69.7%,” she said.
MDDA
During the quarter under review, the MDDA has a leadership vacuum at Board and Management levels, however, Minister Muthambi said the department seconded an Acting Chief Executive Officer who assisted in stabilising the environment.
Although, MDDA has been operational for more than ten years now and has been receiving clean audit reports, the agency seems not to have impact on the ground as the media is still not transformed to date.
ICASA
ICASA could not achieve most of its targets. Key deliverables that were not achieved include the licensing of additional free-to-air television broadcasting services; issuing regulations in the provision of subscription broadcasting television services; position paper on retail tariff transparency; compilation of a draft research report covering factors that affect the cost of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in South Africa and the gazetting of Historical Disadvantaged Individuals/ Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (HDI/BBBEE) regulations in the Government Gazette.
With regard to financial performance, ICASA was only able to spend funds that were earmarked for the normal operations of the Authority and these mainly included personnel costs, travelling, accommodation, stationery, audit fees.
Again, ICASA was unable to spend funds that were earmarked for ring-fenced projects during the three quarters of the 2014/15 financial year.
A sum of R24.1 million remained unspent at the end of the third quarter. As a result, the entity has applied to the National Treasury for the retention of unspent accumulated funds amounting to R85 million.
These funds have been accumulating over the past three financial years and lack of required skills to execute these projects seem to be the main challenge that is facing the Authority.
Brand SA
Brand South Africa was not able to achieve almost all key deliverables that were planned for the three quarters of the 2014/15 financial year.
These targets were deferred to the fourth quarter of the 2014/15 financial year. Key deliverables that were not achieved include branding and messaging, Pride and Patriotism and active citizenship amongst South Africans, as well as positioning SA positively as a business destination amongst domestic and international target audiences.
This entity was also not able to spend all funds that were earmarked for the three quarters as the result of non-delivery of key deliverables that were earmarked for the three quarters. A sum of R46.3 million was still unspent as at 31 December 2014.
FPB
The FPB was able to achieve the majority of the key deliverables that were planned. These deliverables include classification of all (100%) content that were submitted to the entity; review of Classification Governance Framework; identification of 2000 unregistered distributors; accreditation of approved Classifiers Training Program; review of classification guidelines; implementation of automated processes; as well as the implementation of reviewed governance framework. - SAnews.gov.za
