Without financial back-up and in defiance of Parliament and the IBA, BopBC is going it alone, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy
With only days to go before the Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation (BopBC) is obliged to integrate with the SABC, the broadcaster, once the mouthpiece of Lucas Mangope, is defiantly going it alone, outside of the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) recommendations and in defiance of parliament.
Central government funding is cut off. The Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting refuse to give BopBC a single cent. The IBA stands by its recommendation that all Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC) broadcasters integrate into a single national public broadcasting service.
The SABC supports this, parliament has approved the IBA’s recommendation of integration, and even the African National Congress’s national executive committee apparently sent a representative to persuade BopBC to give up its fight.
But the queen bee of BopBC, acting chief executive officer Cawe Mahlati, is holding on tightly to the station.
At present, Mahlati holds the microphone for solo singer, North West Premier Popo Molefe and back-up vocalist, province MEC for broadcasting and media, Dr Paul Sefularo.
This week, Mahlati twice slammed down the phone on Mail & Guardian enquiries about the issue of integration. However, she is believed to be taking full advantage of alleged loopholes in the IBA’s Triple Inquiry report and is refusing to integrate under a single national broadcasting service.
Mahlati’s six-month contract is supposed to expire at the end of March, but BopBC staffers say she is not clearing out her office and seems to be “permanently settled”. She left her corporate affairs management position at M-Net to take up the six month contract at BopBC.
Leslie Xinwa, chairperson of the Joint Integration Management Committee established last October by the IBA, approved by parliament (after the IBA report was released) and responsible for overseeing the integration process, said BopBC “has become a political issue”.
“The issue of BopBC has become political and we have done everything that we can to facilitate the process,” Xinwa said.
He said Minister Pallo Jordan had to “step in to deal with the issue”, since there was no sign that BopBC was going to budge towards integration.
“We believe all the assets of these former homeland broadcasters to belong to the state and to the national public broadcaster, who needs it to satisfy its broadcasting requirements, but there is nothing we can do to ensure that BopBC be included in the process.”
Sources on the committee say Mahlati specified at a meeting held a couple of weeks ago that she was only prepared to give the SABC, at her discretion, what assets she believes it needs and she intends to keep the rest of the assets, especially the television station, for the province.
Minister Pallo Jordan says he has “no legal instruments” at his disposal to compel broadcasters to do anything they did not want to do. “We encourage all the ex-TBVC broadcasters to integrate to form one national broadcasting system and if some choose not to take
that course, they have to live with the consequences of that,” Jordan said.
The Joint Management Committee said the integration process of TBVC broadcasters was supposed to be completed by the end of this month. However, aside from BopBC, the committee could not finalise the process with regards to the other three broadcasters because of the failure by government — especially the Telecommunications Ministry — – to give a written undertaking on paying the retrenchment packages of those people who are unable to be absorbed into the SABC.
“They [government] have not been forthcoming with the money for the 210 employees made redundant from the Transkei, Venda and Ciskei broadcasters,” the committee said.
It is clear that the ministry is not going to fork out any money to BopBC and they have no money available to pay those employees made redundant. However, if the ministry was forced to choose between the two, the people who were made redundant would get the money and BopBC would be left high and dry.
With the latter a strong possibility, sources close to BopBC say the North West premier is cutting deals with private investors in a bid for revenue to sustain BopBC. If that fails – — it needs funding to the tune of about R93- million a year to continue — speculation is rife that Molefe may find himself digging into the province’s kitty to keep the Mahlati two- bit band on air.
The South African Foreign Affairs Ministry used to give BopBC R105-million during the Lucas Mangope era.
Molefe says claims of him clinching deals with private businesses and allegations that he may dip into the province’s budget are “absolute rubbish”.
“These claims are being made by bastards who are intent on discrediting me and and the province.”
But two weeks ago Mahlati told a M&G journalist that she was given R54-million by the province for the coming year. She then sent out a flutter of press releases declaring BopBC back in business.
Last month, the premier’s representative, Willie Modise, said Molefe and BopBC were “looking at a number of options from the private sector to retain its viability” and that the premier was “keen for regional autonomy”. Modise said BopBC was intending to hold on for “at least another two years”.
Molefe did admit this week that he was awaiting a joint business plan from Sefularo and Mahlati, and he [Molefe] could not understand why they refuse to provide the M&G with comment. “Many groups are interested in BopBC, but they have not come forth with any proposals yet,” he said.
Where BopBC staffers a month ago were under the impression that the station would integrate, they now have a clear indication that BopBC will not hand over the reins.
IBA representative Amos Vilakazi said President Nelson Mandela signed a law last week which gave the IBA clear jurisdiction over the TBVC states. “There is now a law in place which clarifies the situation,” Vilakazi said.
“The IBA now has unquestionable jurisdiction over BopBC. This means the regulatory body can make clear-cut decisions on licencing, enabling it to grant or not to grant a licence to those broadcasters wishing to continue outside of a national broadcaster.
“We have made recommendations surrounding all TBVC broadcasters and it seems the only way to conclude the issue surrounding BopBC is by some political involvement,” Vilakazi said.
He added that the IBA is responsible for regulating frequencies and if BopBC wants to continue on its own, it would have to reapply for a licence and present its case to the IBA.
Recommendations by the IBA in its Triple Inquiry report to parliament clearly state that all television studios “should be rationalised to ensure the most cost-effective use” by the national public broadcasting service [the SABC] for “both internal production and as a revenue-generating resource through use by private broadcasters”.
It also states that BopBC’s external broadcasting obligations be assumed by the national broadcasting service and its facilities be
used for the proposed national broadcasting satellite and external services.