The SABC's "Day Zero can happen tomorrow."
That is the dire and stark warning from the SABC's chief financial officer, Yolande van Biljon, who in an interview on Monday morning with SABC News said that the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster could see its operations seize up at any moment.
So precarious is its cash-flow situation and so beleaguered is the South African public broadcaster's financial situation that its finance boss on Monday couldn't guarantee that SABC staffers would be getting paid at the end of the month and didn't want to make any commitment and say that salaries will be paid.
The SABC that is drowning in debt owes more than R1.8 billion to hundreds of companies and service providers ranging from Sentech and SuperSport to production companies, royalties payable to Samro, and many more.
The South African public broadcaster is finally completely without money and on Sunday Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson in an interview with The Sunday Times warned that the SABC is on the verge of seizing up and that "communication blackout is imminent".
"I’m not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June," Bongumusa Makhathini said according to a report in The Sunday Times.
The SABC has been waiting for months on another government bailout of R3.2 billion while its already precarious financial position kept worseing, pleading with Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the minister of communications, to do something.
Meanwhile political pressure saw the bloated broadcaster forced to abandon its plan of mass retrenchments that was scrapped before the general elections.
In February this year after his budget speech, Tito Mboweni, the minister of finance, revealed that the SABC now actually needs R6.8 billion as a bailout if it's to survive.
On Monday Yolande van Biljon, SABC CFO, told SABC2's Morning Live in an interview that the broadcaster's juggling act to pay SABC staff salaries at the end of every month has "been the case for the last 8, 9 months. It has just been progressively worseing the last few months".
"We have had low-income months due to various reasons and that impacted heavily on our available cash resources and in the process the strain on the cash have just increased tremendously."
"In terms of debt there is over R1 billion that is owed. If you add accruals you come close to R1.8 billion altogether that is due and payable," she explained.
Asked about the R3.2 government bailout she said "we've had not had formal feedback yet. There is lot of support though".
"Again I ask you, will SABC employees be paid at the end of the month?" asked the Morning Live co-host Leanne Manas, who also revealed that some SABC employees, especially some freelancers, continue to not receive payment and that it has been happening as recently as the end of May.
"We're doing our best Leanne to provide for it in our forecasts and ensure that it is the first thing line-item that is executed in about two weeks from now. The moment a SuperSport or a Sentech or one of the other big partners is just unable to further say 'we're happy to carry you for another month' then the salaries will be at risk."
"As I sit here now it is in the forecast, we are planning to pay it as usual, but the times are extremely uncertain. It's really a day-to-day monitoring situation," Yolande van Biljon said.
'All suffering'
Yolande van Biljon explained that about 10 institutions are owed the majority of the R1 billion in SABC debt with the public broadcaster that also owes money to the South African Auditor-General (AG), as well as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
"Then there's literally hundreds of smaller guys if I can put it like that. We do typically try to ensure that they have an allocation because we don't want to put further strain on the general, smaller service providers and suppliers. The pressure is with those big, 6 or 7 institutions that we owe a lot to."
"We need the funding support as soon as possible in my view. I worry. Apart from the salaries you know, there are service providers and suppliers in the bigger circles that work with the SABC which are all suffering as a result of what we have to deal with."
'Day Zero can happen tomorrow'
"I think Day Zero can happen tomorrow. It depends on if one of these big partners are unable to support us financially, or must be forced to switch off our signal and distribution network, or where the maintenance situation impacts one of our critical infrastructure facilities in one of the studios and there's a real black-on-air situation because the equipment couldn't do what it is supposed to do anymore," Yolande van Biljon said.
"The fact that we're managing it and that we keep presenting a front that everything is fine doesn't serve our purpose. But we've got phenomenal people, we've got fantastic support from our partners that ensure that we remain on-air as is required."
"But it takes one small thing at this point in time and the SABC's Day Zero will be that day," she said.
Explaining the impact of a SABC blackout she said that "28 milion people who listen to our radio stations will not have their news, entertainment and education. That's half of the population which will be immediately affected and they lose this news, entertainment and education in their mother tongue".
"I think it's quite a disaster. The television stations the same thing - a little bit less viewers but if you at SABC1, a significant number of viewers. Millions of people in South Africa will suddenly no longer have access to this kind of information, entertainment, education and news. And this is the SABC's mandate."
"Half of the population will be affected and then I'm not even talking about the 5 000 people who work with the SABC whether in a freelance basis or on a permanent basis - obviously those people and their families and the broader circles will be affected."
