SABC board must go, says SACP

NEWSWATCH: SABC staff claim management has reneged on a promise to increase salaries and have threatened a news blackout, reported Eyewitness News over the weekend. Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party says the broadcaster needs a complete overhaul, reports IOL and, according to another IOL report, the broadcaster now needs more than it originally asked for - more than twice as much, in fact. Tonight also reports that producers have turned to the government to try to get the broadcaster to pay them for work done.

The SABC in a media statement on the weekend "noted with concern and regret the statements attributed to some unions in the article 'Soccer blackout threat' in the Saturday Star of 23 May 2009 and on other broadcasters".

According to the SABC, while it had a meeting on Friday 22 May with the three unions and the SABC board and management, the only issue discussed was the salary increment. It stated that "all the other issues raised in the article including a possible strike by the unions were not discussed".

The broadcaster also said that it and unions are not in a dispute, as claimed in the article, and all parties have agreed to meet today, Monday 25 May, to allow the management to get a formal mandate from the board, where a final proposal by the organisation will be given to the unions.

The statement continued with the SABC giving its assurance to the public that preparations and plans for the Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup are in place and broadcasting these tournaments will go ahead as planned. “We regard the statement of a possible blackout as unfortunate and irresponsible with the intent to cause unnecessary panic. Statements such as these are not in the interest of the country and the SABC,” it concluded.

For more:

IOL: 'SABC must be rescued and rebuilt'… Blade Nzimande, SACP general secretary, said yesterday, Sunday, 24 May 2009, that the SABC board needs to be dissolved now and urged MPs to ‘rescue' the broadcaster from what the SACP views as gross mismanagement.
Eyewitness News: SABC employees threaten news blackout… SABC employees are angry over what they see as management reneging on an agreement for a 10% salary increase.
IOL: We need a R2bn bailout, says SABC… Just when you thought they were ‘only' R800 million in the red the SABC now says it needs more than twice that - R1.8 billion; but senior managers still travel first class.
Tonight: Government asked to intervene in SABC cash crisis… Producers reckon the SABC owes them as much as R40 million and have now turned to the government in an effort to get what they are owed.