SABC MEMBERS MAY SOON GO ON STRIKE

SABC aims to retrench staff  

Posted by: Anastacia Mashaba

News from: News24

 The SABC board might need government assistance to deal with retrenchment at the public broadcaster, SABCnews reported on Tuesday. Board chairperson Ben Ngubane told parliament's portfolio committee on communication that head counts were high at the SABC. "We need support, we will need to reduce the number of people... 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 spokesperson 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 the government for its digital terrestrial television rollout, 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.

The SABC has applied for R6.9bn in government funding over the next three years, according to the National Treasury. Presenting before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications, National Treasury Official Avril Halstead broke the application down into R384.33m in the 2011/12 financial year, R2.026bn in the 2012/13 year, and R4.52bn in the 2013/14 financial year. "If the SABC does not get this funding, there is a projected shortfall of R3.7bn in three years time," Halstead said.