SABC struggles to find creative ways of raising revenue: Makhubele

Member of Parliament Colleen Makhubele says there have been no clear indications from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) leadership about how to fix the challenges facing the public broadcaster.

She says the SABC continues to struggle to find creative ways of raising revenue.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies conducted an oversight visit at the SABC headquarters in Auckland Park, Johannesburg on Monday.

Various speakers pointed out that unregulated over-the-top (OTT) broadcasting and streaming service providers posed unfair competition to traditional broadcasters.

“We have tried changing Boards, we have tried changing CEOs, it has not helped the SABC. So, clearly, the issues that we are facing are not in cost reduction or in changing coaches or players. I’m asking myself, even if we come up with a policy today, are we going to fix the SABC with a policy, my layman’s answer is no, the reason the OTTs are doing so well and they’re taking advantage of the space that SABC has opened and even the other social media platforms are lack of creativity in how to generate revenue,” says Makhubele.

VIDEO | Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies’ engagement with SABC staff and management: 

The Committee has emphasised that the SABC’s financial sustainability, policy and regulatory certainty remain a top priority. It says the SABC is a strategic institution that must be able to survive and compete in the digital era.

The committee’s chairperson Khusela Diko says they are awaiting the outcome of engagements between Communications Minister Solly Malatsi, the Speaker of Parliament and Deputy President Paul Mashatile regarding the withdrawal of the SABC Bill from parliament.

“In our case after the oral submission, the minister indicated that he would like to withdraw the SABC Bill, at the time we held the view that the manners in which the process was handled and the issues that were raised by the minister which spoke to what he believes is an overreach on the part of the Executive in the establishment of a commercial as well as a funding model for the SABC held a view that those were not insurmountable and could have been amended by the community. Be that as it may, we’re sitting in a position where the leader of government business Deputy President Paul Mashatile has intervened.”

Diko says the committee is visiting the Public Broadcaster to ensure the institution is supported.