by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's struggling public broadcaster warns that the SABC is threatened by a black-on-air disaster since the parastatal signal distributor Sentech, owed more than R1 billion by the SABC, could cut its TV signals at any time.
In another shocking revelation, Nomsa Chabeli, SABC CEO, admitted that the public broadcaster no longer has a master transmission agreement with Sentech.
This is because the SABC which is already burdened with over R1 billion in Sentech debt, has until now refused to sign a new master transmission agreement since it would cost too much.
The debt-riddled SABC now wants the government to take over the Sentech debt, which Nomsa Chabeli says the SABC will never be able to repay.
Besides this, the broadcaster wants another R1.4 billion from the government to create new content over the next three years.
The SABC also wants to spend R3.15 billion to fix, repair and upgrade rundown infrastructure, studios and buildings, as well as obsolete and outdated workflow systems and technology.
This is R3 billion that the SABC doesn't have but urgently needs to spend to ensure its survival.
The SABC started to fall behind with its monthly Sentech payments in 2020 and for a while made no payments.
By October 2020 the broadcaster had run up R300 million in unpaid Sentech debt, which ballooned to over R1 billion over the past five years due to monthly underpayments and interest.
Nomsa Chabeli warned parliament's portfolio committee for communications and digital technologies earlier this month in a presentation that black TV screens could soon be the reality for South African viewers since Sentech threatens to cut the SABC's TV signals at any moment.
"There's a significant risk of black-on-air in terms of the legacy debt from Sentech. We are now at a point where Sentech has indicated that they will begin switching off due to unpaid debt," Nomsa Chabeli said.
She now wants the South African government's department of communications and digital technologies to take over the more than R1 billion debt to Sentech and pay that on behalf of the SABC.
"The shareholder should consider taking over the legacy debt that is owed because the SABC is not in a situation to pay off this legacy debt of more than R1 billion," Nomsa Chabeli said.
"Currently, we are actually operating without a signed master transmission agreement with Sentech because we just don't have the financial capacity for the increased costs."
The SABC's signal distribution costs is now its third largest expense after workers compensation and content costs.
The SABC was asked what the SABC plans to do if the government doesn't take over and pay its Sentech debt. Mmoni Ngubane, SABC spokesperson didn't respond to the media query.
Sentech was also asked when it will start to switch off SABC signals, what the SABC's exact outstanding debt is and how much the SABC is currently paying monthly.
Penelope Ntuli, Sentech spokesperson declined to answer any of the questions posed and said "At present we are unable to provide responses to the questions raised, as internal processes are still underway".
Solly Malatsi, minister of communications and digital technologies, also didn't want to answer questions about the SABC's Sentech crisis.
The department was asked in a media query whether the department will be taking over the SABC's R1 billion Sentech debt, what Malatsi's reaction is over the SABC's lack of a basic master transmission agreement and what he is doing about the looming threat of SABC signals getting cut by Sentech.
Spokesperson Tlangelani Manganyi didn't respond to the media query.
At the end of May, Nomsa Chabeli told the portfolio committee that the SABC started to double its monthly payment to Sentech from R20 million to R40 million in April 2024 in an attempt to reduce its signal transmission debt.
"It was just before the general elections in may and it was important for us that the services not be disrupted in any form."
Nomsa Chabeli noted that there are instances where TV producers and production companies are not paid some months, so that Sentech can be paid.
"We pay Sentech first before we pay any of our service producers, meaning that producers come after the Sentech payment. We've maintained that payment despite a very, very challenging payment period."
She said "the department is very much aware of our cash flow position and the payment we have been making for the past year".
