The SABC on Wednesday morning said that it can't and won't give any guarantee that the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster won't face dramatic job cuts to it's almost 4 000 heavy work force at the commercially insolvent institution.
Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson on SABC2's Morning Live programme on Wednesday said SABC staffers are not the target but admitted that the broadcaster's labour cost is too high and that the SABC is not just targeting personnel numbers but at reducing every cost line at the SABC.
It comes after the SABC let go of the fixed-contract and freelance workers at the end of August who were working on the SABC News (DStv 404) channel and who were told on Friday to clear out their desks when their contracts were not renewed.
Longtime staffers and producers who have been with SABC News since the channel's start-up five years ago got axed although the SABC renewed its controversial multi-million rand channel carriage with Naspers' MultiChoice to continue carrying the news channel on DStv for the next few years.
Around 3 000 of the SABC's staff headcount are permanent employees, while the rest are fixed-term and freelance workers.
A staggering amount of the SABC's expenditure goes to just paying staffers, although just 60% are directly involved in programming. The SABC is supposed to spend the bulk of its money on creating and broadcasting content.
The SABC's current wage bill is R3.1 billion for an organisation operating at R7 billion.
Leanne Manas on Wednesday told viewers "the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) identified R428 million in irregular expenditure incurred by the organisation during the time of COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng. How are we going to recover that money?"
She then said "if you look at the money of R428 million and the SABC incurring losses of R622 million - there is the money! And these are the job losses we're talking about."
"People are very, very worried in this building because a lot of contracts came to an end at the end of August because they haven't been resigned. And I know you say they're contracts but these are some people who have been working in the organisation for years - and now they're jobless," said Leanne Manas.
The SABC is reportedly looking at drastically shedding another 800 jobs to try and reduce the staggering wage bill of the public broadcaster that the Auditor-General (AG), Kimi Makwetu, on Monday described as "commercially insolvent".
The SABC yet again posted another annual loss of R622 million for the financial year until the end of March 2018 with the AG saying he can't say whether the SABC remains a going concern.
"We have to cut costs. It doesn't matter how much money we get injected in. We've got to cut cost, said Bongumusa Makhathini. "If you look at our labour cost for example, and other costs, they're too high to sustain and to lead to a viable SABC".
Bongumusa Makhathini said "when you look at labour cost and your needs of the business, we need to look at where broadcasting is going. And we've got to leverage and adopt some new, innovative ways of doing things".
"I cannot come here and confirm that contracts will be renewed without looking at what the operational model that we are adopting, without looking at the realities we are faced with. We cannot have a situation where we allow cost to escalate. We've got to get out cost down. And if it means optimising how we work, looking at our operational model, that's what we'll do."
"I don't want employees to feel that they are the target. We are targeting every cost line."
On Monday morning in a memo TVwithThinus saw, SABC staffers were told that the trade union Bemawu has noted with concern sources talking about the allegedly planned 800 staff cuts, saying "we believe not only legally, but also morally, the SABC was obliged to inform us that they contemplate cutting at least 800 jobs".
"We have seeked urgent legal advice and possible intervention to ensure your rights will be protected at all times. The process seems to be advanced if a number of at least 800 jobs have been decided on, unless the SABC arbitrarily decided to simply cut a number of jobs."
"We do not believe the SABC would be able to function at all with 800 people less, as currently we have a shortage of staff in many areas. Be assured Bemawu will vehemently fight any job cuts at the SABC."
