Ferial Haffajee
The government has slashed the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) budget by millions, and the organisation is haemorrhaging skilled staff who are leaving to avoid a troubled merger with the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra).
Five departments are without heads and insiders say other essential staff are “looking [for work] or leaving” before the merger with Satra, which could begin in two months. The legislation necessary for the union has not yet been tabled in Parliament.
The Department of Communications says the IBA is bloated and can run effectively with just 40 people, instead of the 120 it now employs. “It’s filled with hangers-on,” said a government source.
The IBA’s council has written to the president’s office requesting an emergency meeting after repeated requests to discuss the cuts with the communications department and with Parliament have fallen on deaf ears.
The organisation was given just five weeks to effect the unexplained 20% budget cut from R37- million to R31-million.
It has also been told it must fund restructuring and retrenchments – projected to cost about R2,5-million -a move likely to take it back into the red. Frugal management since a new team took over last year when gravy-train allegations rocked its foundations had just returned the IBA to financial stability.
IBA sources say they are being tarred with the same brush as past managers who allowed finances to run awry to the tune of millions.
Ironically, three major culprits – former councillors Willem de Klerk, Sebiletso Mokone- Matabane and Lyndall Shope-Mafole – are now senior state bureaucrats in the communications department.
“There’s no commitment from the government to stabilise the IBA and consolidate its gains,” complained an IBA member.
Those staff who stay at the broadcasting authority face a wage cut as the government prepares to bring IBA salaries in line with the civil service. When the broadcasting regulator was started four years ago, it won a dispensation to pay much higher salaries.
In some quarters the budget cut is seen as an attempt by the government to squeeze an organisation which has become too independent.
IBA chair Felleng Sekha denies this. “The government told us about the cuts a long time ago. We have finished our major projects.” Sekha was about go on holiday after the gruelling licence hearings for the first private television service.
Back at its headquarters in Rosebank, rumour was rife and morale had plummeted. Staff were only officially told at a meeting on Monday that the budget had been slashed; negotiations for retrenchments began on Tuesday.
At the end of June, non-core services like finance, human resources and administration may be merged with Satra. The IBA could even move into Satra’s offices.
Meanwhile the IBA’s workload has not slackened. It must hear hundreds of applications for community radio licences and new commercial radio stations, monitor next year’s elections, police new local-content regulations and monitor the country’s radio and television stations.
The government also wants the organisation to plan for the digital revolution, as well as consider policy on children’s and regional television.
“The IBA will in any case need a new skills base,” said a government representative.
He added the budget cuts are not sinister, but in line with austerity measures like teacher retrenchments and cuts in the civil service. “Every department has been told to cut its budget.”