Midi TV this week applied to the IBA to amend its licence conditions. Jubie Matlou attended the hearing
Senior counsel Malcolm Wallis led a predominantly white male team that presented Midi TV’s licence amendment application before the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) this week.
Kuresh Patel, legal adviser to Midi TV CEO Marcel Golding, sat quietly and unmoving behind Wallis. His client sat two rows behind Patel paging through a document and occasionally jotting down some notes.
For a detached observer this seating arrangement on the first day of the hearing appeared to suggest that black control and ownership – a cardinal principle in the awarding of the country’s first free-to-air television licence – is taking a back seat, both literally and figuratively.
At the core of Midi’s application to amend its licence conditions is a proposal to change its promise of performance to the IBA when it was granted the licence. This relates to black economic empowerment, including women, people with disabilities and local content production.
It also wants to change its shareholding structure, following the inability of minority shareholders to provide additional financial contributions to Midi TV’s escalating costs.
This implies that black economic groups – such as African Pioneers, Mopani Media, RPM Productions, as well as an economic empowerment group for people with disabilities, DEC Trust – are set to forfeit their shareholder rights if the IBA agrees to Midi’s request. This includes the right to elect members of Midi’s board of directors.
Midi TV’s initial licence application stated that it expected to break even and start making profit on its broadcasting operations three years following the issuing of the licence. But it has incurred unexpected operational costs beyond the R450-million initially budgeted for.
As a result, the union-backed Hosken Consolidated Investment and the American Warner Brothers, as majority shareholders, had to foot the bills for the expenditures of R355-million and R144-million, respectively – more than twice the amount the two had committed themselves to.
Midi’s licence amendment application before IBA chair Mandla Langa resembled a courtroom situation. Testifying against Midi was Deadtime, which has applied for Midi’s liquidation following claims that the company reneged on paying for programmes that were flighted between midnight and the morning shows.
Community Television Network (CTN), one of Midi’s competitors in the licence application process, submitted that Midi didn’t have sufficient funds to launch a television service at the time of application. CTN called for Midi’s licence to be revoked.
The Independent Producers Organisation, which is still hoping for business with e.tv, came out in support of Midi, whereas RPM Productions failed to show up at the hearing for unknown reasons.
Midi withdrew its application to be exempted from obligations to empower blacks, women and the disabled in its human resources practices following “negotiations” with the South African Union of Journalists (SAUJ), Vula Communications and organisations representing people with disabilities.
In its initial licence amendment application, Midi argued that it could not empower blacks, women and the disabled at staff and management levels because of the “resignation and dismissal of a number black middle managers, relocation of staff, skills commitment and some practical problems”.
Midi also withdrew a licence amendment request exemption relating to obligations for employee training and the funding thereof. Initially, Midi submitted that such training requirements were subject to the supervision of other bodies such as the South African Qualifications Authority and the provisions of the Skills Development Act, which requires employers to fund the human resources development of their employees.
Letlhage Mochadibane of the SAUJ said although there was no recognition agreement with Midi yet, “the withdrawal of provisions that were to exempt Midi television from obligations of human resource development and empowerment gives the union some leverage to its members in terms of job security. The union is happy with the arrangements as they stand now.”
It appears that the problems that haunt Midi today will continue to do so whether the licence amendment application is granted or not. As Golding concluded: “Everyone is now supporting our application, including Vula and the disabled.”
However, the gist of Midi’s argument was partly captured by its legal counsel, Wallis, when he said “the ship has long left the habour, and the IBA has no right to recall it”.
Wallis’s comment triggered retaliation from CTN’s Vanessa du Plessis, who retorted, “The ship should not have been allowed to leave the habour at all, signals should have been sounded of icebergs that lie ahead.”