President Cyril Ramaphosa will have to write a letter to Parliament in order for the relevant committee to appoint four new board members. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
According to a media statement released by the public broadcaster on Tuesday, SABC employees did not receive their salaries on Tuesday morning after a technical glitch.
“The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported earlier this morning that its employees had not been paid their salaries as expected, due to a technical error experienced by the financial institution,” the statement read.
“The SABC would like to advise that the financial institution has resolved the technical error and salaries are being paid,” the statement noted.
Last year, the SABC admitted to a parliamentary portfolio committee that it may be unable to pay salaries by March 2019 if the state-owned entity did not receive much needed capital from the government.
The Mail & Guardian reported in December that the SABC board was struggling to turn the public broadcaster around and one of the main concerns was to stem the SABC’s financial losses. In a bid to cut down its expenses, the public broadcaster announced last year that it would restructure the state-owned entity with the retrenchment of 2 200 of its employees, however, this move has been put on hold.
When asked if the public broadcaster will still be able to pay salaries by March, the spokesperson for the public broadcaster, Neo Morodu, told the Mail & Guardian “SABC is committed to paying salaries.”
This article has been amended to reflect that SABC employees were paid at midday on Tuesday.