Communications Deputy Minister Pinky Kekana says the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will submit monthly reports to the department to show how it is implementing its turnaround strategy to meet the R2.1 billion bailout preconditions.
Kekana made the announcement when Ministers in the Economics Cluster responded to oral questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The SABC developed the turnaround strategy, with the assistance of the Government Technical Advisory Centre, to get the public broadcaster back to good financial health. It incorporates initiatives that will be implemented in order to address all the governance, operational and financial deficiencies within the SABC in order to ensure that the R2.1 billion funds allocated to the SABC are used for the intended purposes.
“SABC executives will provide the departmental task team with monthly progress reports, with effect from November 2019 on the implementation of the turnaround strategy.
“In this process, the SABC will also be required to report on the progress made in addressing the concerns of government with regards to three outstanding pre-conditions that must fully be complied with by March 2020,” Kekana said.
The ANC’s Makhosonke Maneli had asked what steps would the SABC take to ensure that it addresses governance concerns in order to fully comply with the three outstanding preconditions that were set by National Treasury.
In her response, Kekana said the outstanding preconditions related to the separate reporting in terms of public commercial services and public broadcasting services, as well as the identification of non-core assets and public-private partnerships.
Government, Kekana said, is satisfied that the SABC is committed to meeting the pre-conditions given to it ahead of being allocated its R2.1 billion bailout.
“…The public broadcaster has demonstrated a commitment to enhance supply chain management processes, to improve and implement all its turnaround strategy accordingly and also to deal with issues of consequence management and fully capacitate the organisation with the required skills and competences,” she said.
The Department of Communications has also developed a plan to pursue policy and regulatory changes to address market failures that may be seen as negatively affecting the public broadcaster. – SAnews.gov.za
