by Thinus Ferreira
The South African parliament's standing committee on public accounts (SCOPA) wants answers from the struggling South African public broadcaster on what its SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli wants to do with R15 million earmarked for innovation and research "initiatives" from the CEO's office.
The SABC's top executives and SABC board appeared before SCOPA, where it came to light that the technically insolvent SABC has budgeted R15 million for the SABC CEO's office to be used for "strategic initiatives".
Nomsa Chabeli told SCOPA that the R15 million is to be allocated to innovation and research projects but didn't provide any details about the specifics of what type of "innovation" and what research this would entail, or by whom.
"It is not at the CEO's discretion and goes through governance processes. In fact, I am the last person to sign off," is all Nomsa Chabeli said about the R15 million allocation to the SABC CEO's office.
Khathutshelo Ramukumba, SABC chairperson, also failed to explain what exactly the R15 million for the SABC CEO's office would be used for.
"What I can say is that the spending of any budgets across the SABC, including the CEO's office, is subject to the SABC's policies and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The board exercises oversight over all expenditures."
Tsholofelo Katlego Bodlani, a member of parliament (MP) of the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party, asked Nomsa Chabeli about the R15 million earmarked for the SABC CEO's office.
"There is also R15-million that is going to be allocated for strategic initiatives in the CEO's office. I want to know what sort of initiatives these are. What has been the benefit of similar allocations in the past? What oversight is in place to ensure there is significant value from that lump sum sitting in the CEO's office," Tsholofelo Bodlani asked.
"What oversight is in place to ensure there is significant value from that lump sum sitting in the CEO's office? The SABC remains technically insolvent. We should be doing everything we can to support the SABC so that it can meet its mandate."
According to Colleen Makhubele, an MP from the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) political party, "There is no budget to begin with" and "In fact, the Auditor-General's report should be the starting point. It highlighted serious concerns".
"The question we ought to be asking is: Can the SABC survive on its own and fulfil its mandate? The answer is no, and the Auditor-General (AG) has made that clear. This is despite the beautiful plans you've presented".
"If you don't have enough money to cover your expenses, your liquidity and solvency are at risk. The SABC should be telling us how it plans to cover the R1.9 billion shortfall that is glaringly obvious."