The Independent Producers Organisation which represents the majority of South Africa's working producers, says it is "concerned and distressed by the continuing instability at the SABC".
"There are many people in South Africa for whom this is their only source of information and entertainment. Whilst the organisation is making a few people rich, the quality of programming is suffering".
"Budgets are extremely low and the SABC is forced to rely more and more in advertisers to fund programming, which comes with severe challenges".
"In addition the South African production sector which is a source of thousands of jobs is becoming less and less sustainable and the quality of programming is decreasing," says the Independent Producers Organisation.
"Instead of money going into the SABC's core function - which is programming - it is supporting an inefficient and incompetent bureaucracy riddled with factional political, personal interests and corruption".
"A once proud institution has been severely degraded over the past few years. Blatant irregularities, fiscal mismanagement and fraudulent leadership has cripped the once diverse, content-orientated SABC, turning it into a dysfunctional burden on the tax payer".
"We call on the institutions designed to provide oversight - parliament, the shareholder in the department of communications and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to exercise their mandate and to intervene urgently," says the IPO.
