Generations producer Mfundi Vundla has come out publicly to slam the SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng for his unilaterally imposed local content quotas saying the controversial executive at the now basically bankrupt public broadcaster made "empty promises" and only did it to ingratiate himself with artists.
Interviewed by DJ Sbu on his new Massiv Metro online radio station, Mfundi Vundla from MMSV productions, had scathing criticism for the SABC's Hlaudi Motsoeneng as several production companies across South Africa making shows for the SABC have again not been paid at the end of April.
After not being paid since February, several South African production companies say they will have to start let workers go as the SABC, unable to pay and now owing production houses hundreds of millions of rand, is once again on the brink of financial collapse similar to 2009.
In June 2016 the SABC with great fanfare announced that actress Sophie Ndaba is partnering with MMSV Productions and would be co-producing a new show together with a claimed R600 million that was set aside by the SABC to fund new productions.
At the time, only MMSV Productions and Mfundi Vundla was named as a "mentor" of actors starting new TV productions for the SABC.
Eleven months later, several of the promised shows have so far failed to materialise on South African TV screens as the SABC is sinking deeper and deeper into a financial crisis quagmire.
""I think that the local content quota was a publicity stunt and was a populist stance designed to expand his footprint in the artistic community," Mfundi Vundla said of Hlaudi Motsoeneng's unilateral decree for 90% local music radio play and 80% local TV content he forced in overnight in June 2016 and July 2016 respectively.
"If you say let there should be 90% local content, that needs to be accompanied by a massive infusion in capital investment. You cannot just declare 90% local content without the money to make that content," said Mfundi Vundla.
"The SABC did not have that money so it was an empty promise. For television it was an empty promise because today those production houses that produce most of the content for the SABC are not getting paid. So, that 90% local content is nonsense."
