TV industry coalition protests, slams SABC leadership

After listening to various speakers firing salvos at the SABC board and top management, they later marched to the public broadcaster's headquarters in Auckland Park, where they handed over a memorandum to acting CEO Gab Mampone.

“We are done with your arrogance and we are forced to come here and tell you that enough is enough,” independent producer Kgomotso Matsunyane told the cheering crowd.

“Surely somebody should have seen this coming because you just don't wake up in the morning and find out that R800 million is missing,” she added.

Matsunyane was referring to the SABC's huge deficit posted last financial year, which saw the corporation being unable to pay more than R60 million to independent producers, who are now threatening to pull the plug on popular daily soapies and other programmes.

Royalties, repeat fees also owed, it is claimed

The march was coordinated by the Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC), which represents more than 80% of all the local content on air and was formed in response to the crisis.

In addition to non-payments issues, TVIEC said that the outstanding monies don't take into account money owed for royalties and repeat fees which artists, writers and producers have been struggling for years to elicit from the SABC.

“We are also convinced that the real issues are much deeper and more significant, such as unfair terms of trade, unsustainable business relationships with content creators, unfair rights ownership, and a deep arrogance manifested in the heavy handed management the SABC displays,” Desiree Markgraaff, of the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO), said.

Lodi Matsetela, of the Writers' Guild of SA, called for intellectual property rights to reside with writers.

As usual with such emotive events, the protest became somehow politicised, with YCL spokesperson Castro Ngobese telling the marchers: “We fully support you but we say to you if you don't call for the removal of this board, you are not going to get paid.

“Kanyisiwe Mkonza [board chair] works for Cope [Congress of the People], and together with Thabo Mbeki and his friend Smuts Ngonyama, they stole SABC money to fund Cope. That is why there is no money.

“And we urge the government not to give the R2 billion bailout to the current board.”

Mampone booed

Visibly frustrated and angry, protesters sang revolutionary songs as they marched through Kingsway Road towards the public broadcaster's offices and carried placards, some of which read: ‘Down with SABC', ‘SABC Skorokoro', ‘SABC squanders while the film industry suffers', ‘Robbed by Rob', ‘SABC corrupt broadcaster' and many more.

Protesters constantly booed acting CEO Gab Mampone as he addressed them upon receiving the memorandum. “You are right to be angry with the public broadcaster, but we are viewing the situation quite seriously.

“We will sit down as executives and respond to your grievances as soon as possible. We will also have to engage as a team and see how we will proceed with payment.”

And in Cape Town

Another protest took place in Cape Town, where independent producers voiced similar concerns.

A caller to CapeTalk567, the main talk-radio in Cape Town, said that the march was actually more of a picket, but nevertheless she felt it was effective: she estimated about 250 people attended the protest. The caller said that one of her fellow protesters (unidentified) had received a message on his/her mobile while at the protest, to the effect that an outstanding invoice was now being processed - the unidentified fellow protester apparently said the payment dated back to 2007.