by Thinus Ferreira
The embattled South African public broadcaster is looking to possibly get rid of up to 180 staffers across its various sales divisions and served them with Section 189 notices on Tuesday, telling them they might be out of work by 15 October 2025.
If the SABC's latest retrenchment process continues, up to 180 sales staffers will have 28 November 2025 as their last working day.
Workers compensation has become the SABC's largest single expense on the balance sheet.
The SABC is looking at retrenching across multiple sections of its sprawling sales division - 180 employees in total.
The retrenchments will potentially be across the SABC's sales divisions of enterprise sales, corporate sales, government sales, SMME (Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises), digital sales, sports sales, category management including RAP radio and product management), sales operations, Ad-venture sales, the sales intelligence division, as well as sales governance and the deals team.
The SABC's sales division has been underperforming for years.
The SABC told the BEMAWU trade union that the 180 sales division jobs it wants to get rid of is "part of a contemplated restructuring exercise aimed at addressing financial challenges and ensuring long-term sustainability".
According to the SABC's notice to BEMAWU, the sales division's underperformance has had a negative knock-on effect on the public broadcaster that is threatening its sustainability.
The broadcaster says it already considered alternative options like cost-cutting through various austerity measures, but now sees restructuring and possible retrenchments as necessary.
The last time the SABC went on a major jobs cut was in 2020 and 2021.
It saw hundreds of staffers leave the SABC and included the gutting of its publicity division for its television content that never recovered, although rivals from Netflix and MultiChoice to various pay-TV channels keep spending on using PR people.
According to the SABC, it wants to restructure its sales division "to optimise revenue generation and strengthen commercial capabilities" to position its SABC News and SABC Sports divisions as top content choices for advertisers, and to build better digital sales expertise, as well as growing regional commercial structures.
Notably, the SABC isn't planning on getting rid of people working in SABC TV Licence roles who are expected to remain unaffected by the retrenchment process.
The SABC's consultation process is set to start on 15 August and will be facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) at the SABC Radio Park building in Auckland Park in Johannesburg, with the trade union that gets to nominate 4 representatives by 14 August.
