The SABC told members of parliament that the public broadcasting had been individually profiling them and has run parliamentarians' names through its "database" to check if they have paid their SABC TV licences.
It’s not clear why the SABC has decided to do
a targeted name sweep and conducted a SABC TV licence name and payment check on
specifically members of parliament.
Parliament's ad hoc committee has been
investigating the beleaguered South African public broadcaster since December
last year with current and former SABC executives and former SABC board members
who came in for bruising questioning, with a number of shocking revelations of
alleged mismanagement that surfaced in the past three months in explosive
testimonies.
Parliament's portfolio committee on
communications this week also convened again to get updates on the SABC's 2016
first and second quarter performance and expenditure where yet another shockingly
bleak picture about the SABC’s financial status emerged.
James Aguma, the SABC's acting CEO, revealed
during the sitting of the portfolio committee on communications that "we also took
the liberty of trying to run members of parliament here through the database to
see how many are paying. And the figures are interesting."
"I will slip a note to the chairperson so
that he can be aware of some members here.We just took the liberty," said James
Aguma.
He revealed that the SABC had to write off a staggering R17.7 billion in SABC TV licence fees due to a "corrupt" database
that was filled with deceased people, people not living in South Africa and
others like old grannies for instance owing R15 000, who can't ever be
reasonably expected to pay off massive accumulated fees and penalty charges.
James Aguma said "either people were too lazy or
too negligent to do that job" when it came to upkeep of a correct SABC TV
licence database in previous years and that it prompted the hiring of
consultants and the massive write-off.
