The SABC has more managers and supervisors than staff, which may partly explain why it produced a meagre profit of R3,4-million from turnover of R2,7-billion for the year to end-March.
The SABC’s return on total assets for the period was a measly 0,2%.
Corporations and even public sector organisations worldwide have embraced the idea of flatter and less hierarchical management structures in pursuit of greater efficiency. The imbalance in the management-to-staff ratio at the SABC emerges from the corporation’s annual report, released last week. This shows that the SABC has about four managers and supervisors for every staff member.
If one includes the 1 735 supervisors mentioned above with the ”rest of staff”, one then gets a ratio of three staffers for every manager. Intuitively this seems a low figure, dangerously close to ”one person, one manager”. In the public and private sectors a more acceptable level would be at least 10 staff members per manager.
Overall, the cost of staff at the SABC increased by 17% in the financial year to end-March. Headline inflation in March was 0,4% compared with March 2003.
This gives another perspective on the SABC’s results, which are usually explained away by the SABC ”mandate” to deliver public broadcasting services in the country’s official languages.
It has been argued that the SABC is not really a public broadcaster as more than 75% of its revenue comes from advertising and only 5% from television licences. The counter-argument is that the SABC must use commercial revenue to cross-subsidise public services.
Hence, in terms of the broadcasting Act, the corporation has been split into a ”public services” arm and a ”commercial arm” for the sake of transparency on cross-subsidisation.
The public services arm of the SABC includes SABC1, SABC2, SAfm and non-English-language stations such as Ukhozi FM and Radio Sonder Grense. The commercial arm is SABC3, Goodhope FM, 5fm and Metro FM.
The public services arm of the SABC generates, mainly from advertising, about R1,5-billion in revenue — twice that of the commercial services division. Now that the two divisions are split, the public services division will receive the full TV licence fee amount of R398-million.
Production of content, such as news, current affairs and educational programmes, the use of facilities and ”other” are known as ”shared services”. They gobble up the substantial revenue produced, so that operating costs have exceeded revenue at the SABC every year for the past five years.
How costs of the shared services are allocated to public and commercial divisions is not clear from the annual report. In any case, the mandate itself raises philosophical and practical questions.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has described the mandate as using broadcasting to ”realise the developmental goals of information, education and entertainment”.
Yet the main business of TV and radio must be entertainment. If the audience is not entertained, they will switch off. Is it a basic human right to be entertained, even in your own language? If it is, who should bear the cost? How practical is it to provide services in each official language?
And how different are the public services and commercial arms of the SABC? Looking at TV it is hard to see where the public service element is paramount.
On SABC1, soap operas Generations and The Bold and the Beautiful vied for most popular TV spot most nights of the week in the first week of August, according to the South African Advertising Research Foundation’s audience rating process. On SABC2, 7de Laan vied with the Afrikaans news.
It might be expected that the drama Isidingo would top the popularity poll on commercial TV station SABC3, and that the theatrical wrestling of International Smackdown attracts the highest audience on e.tv.
But what is public service about The Bold and the Beautiful? Similarly, a high percentage of the public service radio is music, through the commercial stations including 5fm.
In its report, the SABC describes its coverage of the Hefer commission hearings as part of ”delivering on issues of national importance”. It could equally be described as entertainment of the highest order, rivalling Generations in the interest it generated across the population.
However, the public services TV division does have higher local content requirements. To what extent this justifies continued subsidisation by the state and public is open to debate, and needs more detailed scrutiny. Private broadcasters bear lesser local content burdens, but are not off the hook entirely.
The SABC recently argued at Icasa’s broadcast licence amendment hearings that as a public broadcaster it should have more flexibility than private broadcasters in determining its programming. The SABC has reportedly contended that commercial services TV station SABC3 should not have the same local content requirements as its private sector competitors.
The BusinessMap Foundation’s argument is that the commercial services should be moved entirely out of the corporation into the private sector to avoid such complex issues of regulatory judgment altogether.
The privatisation of SABC3, 5fm and Good Hope FM would present meaningful black economic empowerment (BEE) opportunities. Operational already, they would not need high start-up costs. Surely this is an opportunity for government to encourage BEE in a practical way.
The tax revenue the Treasury would receive is likely to more than compensate for the revenue lost. At the same time, the corporation would have to be restructured in other ways; for instance, by ridding itself of its sterile property portfolio.
True public service broadcasting, such as educational broadcasts, could be sponsored by the private sector or paid for directly by government, which would then be able to demand to know exactly how the money is being spent.
The alternative is for the SABC to continue to dominate both public and commercial broadcasting, and arguably do neither particularly well.
Tips for Christine
SABC board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta has asked for ”constructive criticism” of SABC news. Here is some from one who spent five years in the SABC newsroom.
Focus on what the viewers and listeners want, not what you want to give them. Editorial discussion always revolved around what was ”important”, rather than interesting, leading to a parade of ministers and foreign dignitaries.
Give radio news its due. Discussion of SABC news tends to ignore radio, which is massively influential.
Employ people with broadcasting skills instead of recruiting from print, a different medium requiring different skills.
Pay journalists, producers and presenters what they are worth, and pay those who do the work, not the many managers. Salaries of most broadcast journalists are said to be staggeringly low.
Resist the tendency to create new hierarchies to centralise control. Upward delegation leads to paralysis, as no one wants to make decisions. Give news people budgets and let them decide what news is carried.
Resist capture of the news by outsiders. Credibility is vital, and can only be preserved by independence.
Reg Rumney is director of the BusinessMap Foundation