BREAKING. South Africa Screen Federation (Sasfed) blasts the public broadcaster: 'The SABC continues to destroy itself.'

The South Africa Screen Federation (Sasfed) says it unanimously supports the SABC union Bemawu as the union fights the implementation of the SABC's restructuring plans and the South African public broadcaster's turnaround strategy that unions and the South African television industry claim they're not - and haven't been - consulted on.

Sasfed that represents thousands of people from 9 industry organisations in South Africa's independent television and film industry says that similar to Bemawu's claim that the SABC didn't consult with unions, ''that the SABC has consulted neither the independent industry, nor the unions, with regard to its new operating model and turnaround initiatives''.

''Sasfed had also  unsuccessfully attempted to engage the SABC with regard to their turnaround strategy earlier this year, but the SABC had reneged on their commitments,'' says Marc Schwinges, Sasfed vice chairperson, saying that it's ''very frustrating'' to see the SABC ''continuing in their old ways''.

''We had thought that with a new board the SABC would attempt to engage with the industry at all levels to try and provide a workable solution to enable the SABC to meet it's public broadcaster mandate. Many of our members have seen their companies to the wall, and many jobs have been lost in the independent industry due to the SABC’s short-sighted attitudes. This cannot continue.''

''We all want to see a viable broadcaster telling authentic South African stories, yet the SABC continues to destroy itself,” he said. ''We hope that the Bemawu actions will help bring the SABC to its senses.''