The National Treasure told parliament today - when the SABC board appeared before the portfolio committee on communications - that there's inconsistencies in the information that the public broadcaster is communicating to government, like the SABC's proposed new 24 hour news TV channel the SABC now calls News24.
''One of the examples is the News24 channel,'' said the National Treasury chief director Avril Halstead. ''For instance in the application we received there were statements indicating that the SABC was already undertaking capital expenditure investments in relation to the News24 initiative, but colleagues who attend the monitoring task team meeting said to us that 'No, that's investments that needed to be made anyway', so it's all a little bit confusing,'' she said.
In her presentation before parliament Avril Halstead said that ''it's quite difficult to justify'' that financing should be allocated to ventures such as a new 24 hour news channel of the SABC if there's no discernable business plan and clear strategies on how and when it will become a profitable operation.
''For instance on the News24 - the SABC has done research on the experience in other countries that have indicated that other countries had experienced that it's loss making and then only later become profitable. Given the SABC's financial position, we're concerned that if we invest in something like that, we need to know exactly what we're investing in, when it's going to turn-around, and when it's going to be a profitable venture and don't continue to be a drain on the SABC.''
No word yet on what Naspers is making of the SABC who seems oblivious that a News24 news outlet and platform already exists and that it wouldn't be a good idea - if not impossible and completely non feasible - to call a new 24 hour news channel on television, News24.
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