Vuyo Mvoko
WHILE most former homeland radio stations are preparing to wind down their businesses, Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is tying its shoelaces.
It is the employment this month of top journalists Sefako Nyaka and Frances Majola to top executive positions within the corporation which raised eyebrows. They are head of TV news and of radio respectively.
Bop TV has also seen the return of Richard Magau to the position of head of TV. He had left the organisation a few years ago.
MEC for Arts, Culture and Public Media in the North West, Dr Molefi Sefularo, confirmed yesterday that the provincial government was for the moment funding the BBC, to the tune of R93-million a year.
Whether the funding would continue in the coming financial year, he would not say.
Sefularo also did not know whether the station had a vision to justify its existence, and if it had anything to offer which the SABC is not
But a source said Bop TV would soon reveal its plan for the future, but was keeping it under wraps for the time being, waiting for the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to reach finality on the issue of public broadcasting.
Their vision will be self-sustaining and long- term, the source claimed.
Sefularo said it would not be easy for Bop TV to be disbanded because there are “too many big things involved”, such as the disposal of the station’s assets.
While there were too many radio stations and it was perhaps necessary for some of them to be disbanded, the same cannot be said about Bop TV, Sefularo said: “There are two major players in television, Bop TV and the SABC.”
The top management at Bop TV has already been streamlined, with five directors having been given their “severance packages”.
A core staff of 20 people are working full- time at the station at present, while 720 have already taken their retrenchment packages.
But many of the latter category are still working on short-term contracts.
The South African Foreign Affairs Ministry used to give R105-million to the corporation during the Lucas Mangope era.
In the Eastern Cape the provincial government is still footing the bill of Radios Transkei, Ciskei and Capital, according to provincial spokesman Mono Badela.
The stations, however, unlike the BBC, have not made any changes to their operations, pending the outcome of Thursday’s provincial officials meeting with SABC chief Zwelakhe Sisulu, as well as the IBA’s decision.