South Africa's latest minister of communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the 11th communications minister in 11 years, on Saturday finally met with the government bailout team working on trying to get another bailout of billions of rand in the form of a government-guaranteed bank loan for the financially devastated SABC.
On Twitter Stella-Ndabeni Abrahams said "today we met with the team that is working on the government bailout for SABC in preparation for presentation to the cabinet committee".
The beleaguered South African public broadcaster is hovering on the brink of financial collapse and has repeatedly been asking for another government bailout in the form of another government-guaranteed bank loan - similar to the last SABC bailout in 2011 - for months since the latter part of 2018.
The SABC told parliament that it needs roughly R3 billion.
In a statement, Stella-Ndabeni Abrahams said the team sought to provide her "with a progress update as she prepares to pursue cabinet approval for the allocation of a SABC government bailout".
The team comprises of senior officials from the department of communications, National Treasury and the SABC.
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said that "she appreciated the progress made and reiterated to the team that restoring the SABC’s financial sustainability is of vital importance as this will enable it to deliver on its public service mandate to inform, educate and entertain".
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said that she notes "the corporate governance issues emanating from an inquorate SABC board" and that "she will, in terms of her shareholder responsibilities, continue engaging parliament to bring finality to this matter".
