SABC's plea over loan

This emerged in Parliament yesterday during a briefing on the SABC's performance against the conditions of the government guarantee.

The public broadcaster got a loan from National Treasury when it was facing a cash crisis in 2009.

The loan came with conditions, including that the SABC should raise advertising revenue by R535m the following year and sponsorship revenue by R128m during the same period.

The broadcaster was also instructed to trim down its wage bill by R1.5bn and raise net profits.

While some of the conditions have been adhered to, the SABC has failed to meet others, especially the salary bill and raising more income.

An interdepartmental task team comprising high-ranking officials from the departments of communications, National Treasury and the SABC yesterday told the portfolio committee on communications that the broadcaster was projecting a net loss of R92m by the end of the financial year ending in March.

Salaries, benefits over-budget

The team also reported that the payments of salaries and other employee benefits would cost R114m more than it was budgeted for this year.

However, SABC top brass said that they have submitted a "draft proposal for the amendment of the government targets" to the National Treasury because the SABC was beginning to turn the corner.

Acting chief financial officer Lerato Nage could not reveal details of the "draft proposal" as it would be considered by the National Treasury's guarantee certification committee on March 13.

Employing an analogy of how banks deal with financially weak companies, SABC board member Desmond Golding said some of the conditions were proving to be too stringent and inhibitive as they had been agreed to at the time when the SABC was just not able to pay for anything on its own.

"We are not saying that we are running from those particular terms and conditions. But we are saying that given our financial position, we can in fact negotiate better."

Source: Sowetan via I-Net Bridge