Thinus Ferreira
The SABC which can no longer maintain or repair its decades-old lifts at its Auckland Park headquarters, is now trying to rent lifts.
It's also busy with a physical workplace move "consolidation" plan to shift as many workers as possible from its radio building into its TV complex.
The struggling South African public broadcaster says it requires R1.4 billion to produce much-needed content over the next 3 years, with another R3.15 billion urgently needed to repair and replace its rundown, broken and outdated infrastructure.
The SABC is now trying to rent lifts since parts to service and replace its old elevators are apparently no longer being made and unavailable.
On a good month the SABC gets R350 million in income, of which R200 million goes towards the wage bill and paying salaries.
That leaves R150 million to pay other bills, accumulated debt, electricity, the parastatal signal distributor Sentech, and other service providers like production companies who produce content for the broadcaster.
Almost no money is left for basic maintenance of the SABC's infrastructure, repair and upgrades.
Nomsa Chabeli, SABC CEO, in a presentation to parliament's portfolio committee on communications, said "the lifts at SABC are more than 50 years old".
"Schindler has come back to us to say they no longer have the spare parts to service the lifts. It's quite a risk for the SABC."
"We're looking for a turnkey solution for that. But the market might not yield what we want because we're looking for a long-term rental, because we don't have the capital to front the investment of those lifts."
According to Nomsa Chabeli, the SABC's "critical infrastructure is at a risk of collapse".
"The majority of our infrastructure is more than 30 years old. We've got failing buildings, our studios are very much outdated and we're dealing with analogue-era equipment. Our current systems cannot support the latest 4K-broadcasts."
Nomsa Chabeli says the SABC started a "consolidation plan" for its Auckland Park buildings, which comprise its rundown radio building and its TV building.
According to this new "workspace strategy", Nomsa Chabeli says "we're consolidating the Auckland Park campus".
In this plan, staff are being moved to the TV centre with the SABC which plans to maintain only its radio studios in its Radiopark building.
Nomsa Chabeli mentioned that when she sits at interactions next to executives from broadcasters like the BBC, "if you look at the language they are talking, and the language they we as the SABC are using, we are 15 years behind."
"The danger we have is that the likes of the BBC, because of their ambitions globally - at some point South Africans will have a bigger dependency on foreign broadcasters informing and educating our own population because we're not able to do it because we are at a risk of collapse."
To upgrade, repair and replace its ageing and dilapidated infrastructure, the SABC says its urgently needs to spend R3.15 billion. The public broadcaster wants to spend R900 million to upgrade its Auckland Park headquarters and provincial buildings.
Another R750 million is required for studio equipment and technology like replacing cameras, modernising studio facilities, repairing and upgrading regional production facilities, control rooms and editing suites.
Then the SABC needs to spend R500 million on the replacement of its electronic news gathering (ENG/DNG) and field production units to replace dated equipment.
Another R200 million is required to automate news curation, its ad planning system, and subtitle services.
R400 million is needed to replace the SABC's ERP system, and another R400 million must be spent on its digital and automation stack.
The SABC was asked in a media query what the public broadcaster will do if it doesn't get the R1.4 billion to create public service content and where it envisions getting the R3.15 billion to spend on critical infrastructure upgrades, the move of staff from the radio building, and how far the process of lift replacement is.
Mmoni Ngubane, SABC spokesperson, didn't respond to the media query.
