This year will be `difficult and challenging’ for the SABC, says its head, Zwelakhe Sisulu. In the light of the current turmoil there, this looks like a considerable understatement
Ferial Haffajee
THE South African Broadcasting Corporation is to demand nearly R1,8-billion from the government – and will threaten to pull the plug on special coverage including regional broadcasts, the truth commission, the 1999 elections and live parliamentary broadcasts if it doesn’t get it.
The broadcaster’s projected budget, disclosed to the Mail & Guardian, proposes funding from the taxpayer until the turn of the century.
The SABC was due to deliver its proposals to Communications Minister Jay Naidoo this week.
Naidoo has been involved in ongoing talks with the SABC, and said in February that government would fund specific projects the SABC must provide under its mandate from the Independent Broadcasting Authority. These include multi-lingual broadcasting and educational programming.
But the SABC’s budget proposals go way beyond the demands of the IBA’s mandate, with the broadcaster warning that without the cash it will provide no more than ordinary news coverage on important events.
“This is a nothing-for-free budget,” said a senior SABC official, who did not want to be named.
What the SABC wants the government to do is to hand it R215-million this year, R441- million next year, R572-million in 1999 – the year of the election – and R539-million in the year 2000.
Extended public broadcasts of the elections, the truth commission, live broadcasts from Parliament and special projects – which include big national events such as sport, Freedom Day celebrations and presidential inaugurations – are widely seen as essential functions. Public broadcasters across the world screen extended broadcasts on similar functions.
But the SABC complains that its fingers have been burnt too many times for it to agree to any broadcast-now-pay-later agreements. It is blaming its current losses in part on the government’s failure to pay for broadcasts in the past and complains, for example, that it still hasn’t been paid for coverage of the 1994 election.
In effect, the SABC has drawn up two budgets: one it will fund itself and one that requires state funding.
Naidoo said in Parliament earlier this week that additional funding for the SABC would be hard to come by. The government ultimately wants the broadcaster to become self-funding.
A representative for Naidoo said the minister needed to study the SABC proposals. Any additional funding would be based on the SABC restructuring “to position itself as an effective public broadcaster in the face of competition”.
The SABC’s get-tough approach has largely followed on the recommendations of American management consultancy McKinsey.
Hired last October at a cost of R6-million, McKinsey has recommended sweeping changes to enable the SABC to thrive in a competitive environment. Its proposals include axing 1 400 jobs to save R450- million.
Thus far the SABC has offered voluntary retrenchments to its staff alongside McKinsey’s targeted job-cutting programme. Fewer than 1 000 staffers have applied so far, many of them senior staff. The M&G understands that the SABC plans to complete all 1 400 job-cuts over the next two weeks.
In the SABC’s annual report tabled in Parliament this week, chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu mentioned its efforts to eliminate “any unnecessary expenditure”. He said he also expected the government to provide funding for specific projects for the current year.
“Discussions have been very constructive,” he said.
The report said that the corporation sustained a R60,2-million deficit for the 12 months to September 1996, against a R100,7-million surplus the previous year. The SABC had budgeted for a R6-million surplus.
The report showed that broadcasting operations left the SABC nursing a R112- million deficit, which was only partially salvaged by interest received of R56- million, leaving a bottom-line deficit of about R60-million.
The corporation was hit by rising costs – to R1,76-billion from R1,54-billion – which Sisulu mainly blamed on programming changes. More than R530-million of the operating expenditure was attributed to personnel and renumeration costs.
The SABC had budgeted for revenues to rise 11% above last year’s R1,61-billion figure. But a poor performance from its television operations, including lower-than-expected licence fee income, curtailed the revenue gains to just 2%.
Sisulu said: “1997 will, we are sure, continue to be a difficult and challenging year.”