by Thinus Ferreira
Is the South African public broadcaster's SABC3 finally getting sold off with SABC1 and SABC2 broken up into several smaller provincial TV channels that have to work together and share provincial news and content as a network?
That could be in the future for the technically insolvent SABC which is once again experiencing dire financial problems after the Democratic Alliance political party's Solly Malatsi has been appointed by president Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa's 15th minister of communication and digital technologies in the past 30 years.
The ANC's appointment of Solly Malatsi could spell significant policy changes for South Africa's communications sector, including massive changes to various communications parastatals like the beleaguered South African public broadcaster.
With South Africa long-delayed and still not completed switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT), as well as the forever-limping SABC, the department of communications - now spearheaded by Malatsi - will have to make decisions on the way forward with the DTT process and the future of the struggling broadcaster.
The DA's recently published policy document for South Africa's information and communication technology (ICT) sector hints at what some of the DA's proposed plans for the SABC are, including the possibilities of selling off and breaking up the South African public broadcaster.
According to the DA's policy document, "There is no doubt that the SABC is in crisis" with 40% of its revenue just going to pay salaries, with the party saying "it is clear that the SABC is a bloated organisation in dire need of fixing".
The DA wants to hold public hearings to determine whether South Africa needs a public broadcaster and then "call for the SABC to be broken up into various commercial entities and sold to the highest bidder".
Under such a scenario the loss-making SABC3 as the broadcaster's only commercial TV channel will definitely go on the block as a long-struggling TV channel that lost half of its entire viewership between 2017 and 2021.
The other part of the plan is to "Consider the option of decentralising the SABC into provincial broadcasting stations to be independently run by and managed by the relevant provinces".
According to the DA's policy document, this decentralisation "will encompass a resource sharing model (similar to the broadcasting model of the United States). This model will increase cooperation between provincial broadcasters in the sharing of content to illuminate duplication of content production, which can reduce the subsequent costs".
There is also the suggestion to "Conduct a nationwide customer survey to identify the causes of viewership losses and implement relevant remedies".
The DA says that if the SABC remains as a public broadcaster in South Africa, it would be important to "Ensure that the public interest always comes first and that the SABC remains an independent public
broadcaster and institution as per the Broadcasting Act, and not a platform for political interference
and corruption".
"We will do this by removing all political appointees through ensuring that a skills audit is completed for all employees and then conduct a restructure of the entity where necessary."
Other plans and suggestions in the policy document include the implementation of "strict financial measures to turn around the SABC's dire financial situation" through cost-cutting, increasing support for making local productions, and increasing spending on more local content productions - but without any local content quotas mandated for SABC TV and radio.
The DA's policy document states that it is important for the SABC to "Seek new and increased revenue streams to fund the operation of the SABC and make it as independent as possible from public financing".
"One such a step will be a new agreement regarding the 'must carry' regulation which does not allow for the SABC to sell its content to other broadcasters."
"The broadcaster must however stay clear of controversial plans such those proposed in the draft white paper on audio and audio-visual content which would see consumers streaming a Netflix of Amazon production on their phone, having to pay a license fee to the SABC."
The policy document notes that the government "must engage with international and local streaming providers and consider a possible mutually beneficial relationship through content sharing. Users will then be able to access local and international content on SABC and other online streaming networks. In this instance, SABC will be able to generate demand by also including trendy, international
shows."
