She was speaking at the annual general meeting on Wednesday in Braamfontein, Johannesburg of the public pressure group advocating for public broadcasting, the SOS Coalition.
Lulama Mokhobo intoned that the hope of the SABC staff is hot very high - the struggling public broadcaster keeps being rocked by scandals, a breakdown in corporate governance, corruption and allegations of corruption, and still needs to pay back the full outstanding amount of the R1,4 billion bail-out loan the SABC got in 2009 when the broadcaster hovered on the brink of financial collapse.
"We are not about to fold up and die, that I can promise you. And for as long as I'm at the SABC, I can assure you, we are not going to have the kind of very bad financial situation that we've just come out of. And I'm quite sure that we will begin to raise the hopes of the people of the SABC," said Lulama Mokhobo.
Lulama Mokhobo said that the public broadcaster's local soaps are being encouraged to take on pressing South African societal problems, for instance substance abuse which are visibly going to be worked into storylines.
Attention is also going to be given to public discourse and current affairs programming often hidden away and scheduled late at night. Lulama Mokhobo said she will be sorting out scheduling problems such as The Big Debate shown "when people are sleeping".
Lulama Mokhobo promised and committed herself to meeting with the SOS Coalition at least one a quarter in the future to help with building a stronger South African public broadcaster.
The SOS Coalition said that the SABC is "an essential institution to our democracy and that we have no choice but to ensure that it operated effectively and in the public interest." The public pressure group also said it supported SABC workers for their tireless efforts to ensure that programming goes out each day despite the public broadcaster's ongoing leadership crises.
