SABC DAY ZERO: Literally crumbling and cracking, SABC now facing Day Zero collapse by March 2019 as it's unable to pay salaries; workers complaining about where the biscuits went.

Fast running out of its last available cash, the SABC is now facing its own "Day Zero": By February 2019 the broadcaster will no longer be able to pay full staff salaries and by March 2019 the SABC will completely collapse and not be able to pay any salaries while workers - facing mass retrenchment amidst drastic cost-cutting measures - are complaining about where the biscuits went that they've always enjoyed.

The SABC board and executives of the commercially insolvent South African public broadcaster appeared before parliament's portfolio committee on Tuesday, telling shocking tales of a dire SABC on the edge of a financial precipice that is literally crumbling away.

SABC restrooms have run out of hand towels that are no longer available, staffers have to appease angry suppliers over the phone and explain why they're not getting paid which wasn't part of their original job description, and a massive chunk of debris recently came falling down at the SABC's Auckland Park headquarters where the building has cracks where the SABC can no longer afford to do basic maintenance.

Chris Maroleng, SABC chief operating officer (COO), told parliament that at the SABC - that the Auditor-General (AG) in September declared a non-going concern - workers are complaining about where their biscuits went, "something they were used to".

Meanwhile the SABC is looking at getting rid of up to a third of its full-time workforce - 891 of its 3 376 workers and half of its freelancers - 1 200 of 2 400 by February 2019 - telling parliament that at the bloated broadcaster up to 4 people are being paid to do the same job.

The SABC told parliament that it urgently needs R3 billion as a government bailout just to continue to pay staff salaries.

"The reality is that without the money being injected into SABC, we are in a dire situation and this SABC will collapse. Come March 2019, it will collapse," Bongumusa Makhathini told parliament.


'March 2019 is our Day Zero.'
In trying to cut back the SABC that has been struggling to pay producers for content, has agreed to paid them less, shifting a massive burden to South Africa's TV production industry now bearing the brunt of the SABC's financial woes.

Mathatha Tsedu, SABC board member told parliament "We have negotiated terms with content suppliers; people who provide the SABC with content like Muvhango, Generations, Uzalo and who produce the content at own expense. They give it to us, we can't even pay them."

"We have negotiated terms, we owe them R20 million a month, but we pay them R5 million. So every month, the accumulation of the debts just keeps increasing. But these producers are using their own money to finance the SABC's operation."

We've negotiated terms with Sentech. Sentech takes us into broadcasting. We provide 60% of Sentech's income. We can't pay them. And when we can't pay them it puts the entire broadcasting industry in jeopardy."

"The same applies to Samro whose music we play on our radio stations, and SuperSport who gives us the PSL games. All those people are not being paid the monies owed to them. We're renegotiating sport rights - all the fiasco around Bafana and SAFA revolves around the fact that we can't pay what SAFA wants us to pay."

"Some days you go into the SABC toilets and there are no hand towels because the cost-cutting have gone that deep."

"We haven't maintained our buildings for a very long time. Last week a huge chunk fell from the reception of the Radio Park building. The people responsible for the maintenance of our buildings have been warning that there are cracks there - something is going to happen. But we don't have the money. We're only dealing with what is broadcast critical," Mathatha Tsedu said.

"If there is a crack up there and it doesn't stop us from going on air, we will not fix it until that rock falls down. And one day, it is going to fall on someone."

Mathatha Tsedu said "now these invoices that we are not honouring are from companies that employ people but from our side we prioritise payment of our staff".

"Our staff every day have to deal with calls from these people who supply us with services, whose companies are going under because we can't pay."

"At every turn I have to say to say to them [SABC staff] 'I apologise', because when we hired them as accountants,it was not one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that they were going to have with explaining to people why we can't pay. They were supposed to process payments but now we're putting them in a very bad situation."

"At the end of January 2019 we will get to a point where we will be able to pay salaries and a few other things. February 2019 we might not even be able to pay full salaries. March 2019 is our Day Zero."

Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO said "we've significantly cut programming and film cost which is our core business. It has not helped us, particularly in terms of attracting audiences".

Chris Maroleng said "investment in programming and film has been reduced by between 30% and 50% which is quite significant".

About cost-cutting at the SABC he said "It's as basic now as reducing the amount of milk, the amount of bottled water, the amount of basic commodities within the business."

"Some of our staff even complain that they don't get biscuits which was one of the things that they used to have," said Chris Maroleng.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party demands the SABC 'pay back the money' after minister Bathabile Dlamini's scandalous pay-for-play interview on Real Talk with Anele on SABC3.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party is demanding that the SABC "pay back the money as it is complicit in the corruption of the minister" after the scandalous pay-for-play revelation that the minister of social development Bathabile Dlamini paid thousands of rands to the broadcaster so that she could be interviewed on Real Talk with Anele on SABC3.

The shocking revelation on Wednesday that the SABC accepts money for a politician to be interviewed on its airwaves - and not even disclosing it - has inflicted massive further reputational and brand damage on the SABC's credibility as a public broadcaster.

The scandal is also doing damage to the image of talk show host Anele Mdoda, the production company Cheeky Media and the show's executive producers Yusuf Stevens and Janez Vermeiren, as well as SABC3.

So far there been no official statements from the SABC, Cheeky Media, SABC3 or Anele Mdoda, with Cheeky Media that referred media enquiries to the SABC, and the SABC that hasn't responded with answers to media enquiries made on Wednesday.

The report from Daily Maverick exposed a horrific lapse of SABC editorial control and safeguards, standards and ethics.

Real Talk with Anele, Cheeky Media and the SABC, are in breach of the SABC's own editorial policy that clearly states that "where there is programme sponsorship, the sponsor's association with the programme has to be stated clearly, both before and after the programme".

They are also in breach of the SABC's editorial policy in terms of "information programming" that states that the SABC should "disclose all the essential facts and not suppress relevant, available facts".

Likewise infomercials and paid-for content in programmes on the SABC "must be labelled in such a way as to make clear that they are not programme material" the SABC's editorial policy states.

"We call on the SABC board to immediately institute an investigation and all who are guilty must face prosecution," said the EFF in a statement on Thursday.

"In addition, we call on parliament to also take the necessary steps to discipline the minister of social development, Bathabile Dlamini."

"The EFF condemns the department of social development and SABC for exchanging R500 000 of taxpayers’ money for Bathabile Dlamini to talk about herself on the SABC3 programme Real Talk with Anele."

"This is consistent with how ministers in general have been paying Gupta Business Breakfast briefings on SABC for interviews. Here, not only have departments paid The New Age, also SABC has itself done so."

"The EFF rejects the justification that Bathabile Dlamini’s interview was an advert for the work she does in government."

"The 80% of the interview was about herself and the ANC Women's League. In essence, taxpayers’ money was used to profile Bathabile Dlamini and not government social development work."

The EFF statement comes after the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party that in a statement also said Bathabile Dlamini must pay back the R500 000 that "could have paid more than 300 social grants. It is shocking that the department had the audacity to supposedly use public money for an interview".

"It is mandated to serve the poor, needy and vulnerable within our society, it is not mandated to use taxpayers' money to make floundering ministers look good." The DA said it would submit a range of parliamentary questions to "get to the bottom of this likely abuse of taxpayers' money".

So far the SABC board has been silent over the scandal.

There's been no comment or statement from SABC board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini.

The SABC board also has journalists serving on it in the form of Mathatha Tsedu and John Matisonn with neither who have said anything so far about the latest scandal rocking the South African public broadcaster's credibility.

In July 2017 the SABC interim board member Mathatha Tsedu (now a permanent SABC board member) addressed the SABC's damaged credibility problem in South Africa's parliament and said "every time there is a cycle of bad news around the SABC, the revenues from the SABC TV licences dip."

"How do you get credibility back into the products that the SABC produces? The credibility of the SABC is not just judged by how Muvhango's story line is going or how 7de Laan's story line is going. The major credibility point of the SABC is its news output."

SABC wants a R3 billion bailout.

The beleaguered South African public broadcaster urgently wants a massive R3 billion bailout to keep it from collapse, more than double its last government bailout of R1.47 billion in 2009.

Parliament’s standing committee on finance on Wednesday revealed that the struggling SABC – gutted after gross financial mismanagement, corruption and a revolving door exodus of top executives and board upheaval over the past three years – wants a R3 billion bailout.

The jaw-dropping R3 billion sticker price is the first time the South African public has heard what the bailout amount is that the SABC is asking the government for and that has so far been deliberately kept secret.

It comes four months after the cash-strapped SABC requested yet another government bailout from national treasury in May, an amount that the new minister of communications, Ayanda Dlodlo who said her ministry will support transparency, has been unwilling to reveal despite repeatedly being asked about it.

The secrecy over the size of the amount the SABC wants in its latest bailout has prevented any public debate to take place over it, with the long-suffering SABC – similar to other parastatals like the SAA, Eskom and others – in desperate need of another large cash injection to keep it afloat.

The SABC is unable to get any bank loan without a government-backed guarantee, meaning that the broadcaster is unable, without help, to raise the necessary cash to cover its operating expenses on its own.

A bailout in the form of a “government guaranteed loan means that the South African public – through the government – becomes responsible should the SABC be unable to repay it.

The SABC lost millions of rand due to a litany of dubious contracts, consultancy fees, legal fees in lost court cases, exorbitant executive salary hikes and irregular bonus payouts, unsustainable localTV and radio content quotas, falling TV and radio viewership and listenership, as well as wasted spend on local TV content that failed to attract ratings.

Despite being in deep financial trouble, the SABC has inexplicably also been paying external companies for “double up” work, for instance to collect SABC TV licence fees while the broadcaster has a large in-house TV licence fee collecting staff. This practise has now been cancelled by the interim board.

Ironically, while the SABC paid mega-millions for external fees collection, the SABC’s revenue from TV licence fees has plunged, with the broadcaster that paid more to receive less.

The mismanaged SABC owes millions of rand to TV producers,  various suppliers and even the signal distributor Sentech with which the broadcaster had to make a special arrangement to settle back payments later in order to prevent it’s channels’ signals from being cut off and the SABC going dark.

The Special Investigative Unit (SIU) has been given the green light to start a comprehensive, in-depth probe into widespread mismanagement and corruption at the SABC, an investigation that is expected to take three to four years to complete.

The SABC is expected to end its 2016/2017 financial year with a eye-watering R1.1 billion net loss. The broadcaster posted a R395 million loss in 2014/2015 that became even worse and grew to R411 million in 2015/2016. That loss will now again more than double in just a year.

Earlier this month parliament was told that while SABC3 as the broadcaster’s only commercial TV channel is supposed to bring in the money to support the broadcaster’s public broadcasting services (PBS)  side, that it’s become SABC1 that now has to support the crippled SABC3 that saw a content and ratings implosion.

Earlier in September Mathatha Tsedu, interim SABC board deputy chairperson, told parliament that the SABC is unable to do basic maintenance on its dilapdated buildings – unable to fix things like leaking roofs or even broken doors. He said the SABC can only do building repairs if something is “truly life-threatening”.

Mathatha Tsedu told parliament that without another bailout the SABC “will survive” but that the broadcaster won’t be able to fulfill its broad mandate as a public broadcaster.

“It is not going to be possible to transform, modernise and digitise the SABC without an injection from external funding,” he said, adding that without another bailout “we would survive, but just survive”.

R3 billion bailout ‘an astonishing amount of money’

The Democratic Alliance (DA) political party’s Phumzile van Damme and a member of parliament says “it is serious disappointing that parliament, and indeed the public had to find out about the R3 billion amount of the SABC’s requested bailout in a roundabout manner”, and described the R3 billion as “an astonishing amount of money”.

"The DA has on several occasions requested Ayanda Dlodlo to make the SABC’s financial requirements public and to consult parliament on the proposed bailout. However she refused, stating that the amount doesn’t matter".

"Parliament’s communications committee should have been consulted in the interest of good governance and transparency especially given the financial stress at the SABC,” says Phumzile van Damme.

Parliament chooses 12 new permanent SABC board members; shuts out SA's TV production sector with no representation.

Parliament has chosen a new permanent SABC board that includes the entire 5-person interim SABC board as well as one former SABC board member but not a single person from South Africa's TV production sector responsible for giving the SABC its local content.

The names of the 12 SABC board nominees will become permanent after president Jacob Zuma has rubber-stamped their appointment.

On Tuesday parliament's portfolio committee for communications nominated the entire 5-person SABC interim board to continue serving. These include Khanyisile Kweyama, Mathatha Tsedu, Krish Naidoo, Febe Potgieter-Gqubule and John Matisonn.

The former SABC board member Rachel Kalidass who was fired previously, has been chosen to return.

Other members include Nomvuyiso Batyi, Michael Markovitz, Bongumusa Makhathini, Dinkwanyane Mohuba, Victor Rambau and Jack Phalane.

The 12 names will be submitted to the National Assembly for adoption and recommendation to President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday.

The term of the current interim SABC board expires at the end of this month.

The new SABC board interestingly doesn't include a single person from South Africa's production industry, although some applied.

With the SABC sinking financially and losing ratings, the South African public broadcaster desperately needs people with actual, broad-based broadcasting experience - something in short supply in the new SABC board.

Going forward, the struggling SABC battling to pay producers and production companies and to make quality local content, will not have a single person from this very important sector representing their voice on the SABC board.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament, Phumzile Van Damme, said that the ANC political party, "given an opportunity to give the SABC a new start", instead "chose to use their majority to force unsuitable candidates onto the SABC board".

"Despite the best efforts of the DA and other opposition parties in the committee, it seems as through cadre-deployment is yet again set to return to the SABC".

The DA and other opposition parties strongly objected to the re-deployment of ANC cadres Febe Potgieter-Gqubule and Krish Naidoo on the new SABC board.

The EFF political party member of parliament Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said Febe Potgieter-Gqubule "failed dismally to understand the times and epoch the SABC is entering. She thinks it is correct being an ANC deployee into the board".

Febe Potgieter-Gqubule revealed during her interview that she could be running for the ANC NEC if nominated, and Krish Naidoo word as a legal advisor in Luthuli House for the ANC.

Dikwanyane Mohuba who also has no broadcasting experience is connected to former ANC Limpopo chairperson Cassel Mathale and Bongumusa Makhathini who knows nothing about public broadcasting is the chairperson of the foundation of Jacob Zuma's wife, Bongi Ngema-Zuma.

SHOCKER: Almost a THIRD of the SABC's outside broadcast trucks are not usable - need to be upgraded but out-of-cash broadcaster isn't able to.

Shockingly, almost a third of the cash-strapped and beleaguered SABC's outside broadcast trucks - called "OB vans" in the TV biz - are not usable, the public broadcaster has revealed.

"There are crucial issues about people who are producing content for us, sport broadcasts that we are mandated to carry by the Broadcasting Act which we are scaling down because we don't have the money," Mathatha Tsedu, deputy chairperson of the SABC interim board said in an interview.

Mathatha Tsedu revealed in an interview on SABC2's Morning Live that "our OB trucks, almost a third of them are not usable. We need to upgrade them; we can't do that."

"So the board has taken a decision that we're only going to do those things that are necessary for us to do."

Six years after rife mismanagement, corruption and mismanagement brought the SABC to the brink of financial collapse in 2009 that saw the SABC thrown a R1.47 billion bailout lifeline from the government with stringent rules attached - 6 of which the SABC failed to adhere to - the financially under water SABC is once again in dire need of yet another government bailout. 

Communications minister Ayanda Dlodlo continues to refuse to tell the South African public what the mega-amount bailout is that the South African public broadcaster has requested from Treasury this time to keep the struggling South African public broadcaster afloat that is falling further and further into the red.

After shocking mismanagement and maladministration, the SABC is in dire need of a cash splash in order to pay millions of rand in arrears and back payments due to a range of creditors from content producers and the signal distributor Sentech to others.

"There are appointments, there are unprocedural bonuses that people were paid - some in millions, some in thousands - there are a whole host of irregular things that contributed to the R5.1 billion over five years of irregular expenditure," said Mathatha Tsedu.

"A whole host of production companies that keeps shows going, that give us content, we haven't even been able to pay them because there isn't money. Every month it's really a process of negotiating with this producer and giving them half and see whether mid-month you're going to give them the balance."

"There's just so much money that is owed to people who have already done work for the SABC - work for which they should have been paid by now which we haven't been able to do because there is no money," said Mathata Tsedu.

SABC MultiChoice channels deal an 'onion'

Regarding the highly controversial SABC MultiChoice deal, Mathatha Tsedu said "it's an onion that will have to be peeled one layer at a time".

In the controversial deal, the SABC supplies the SABC News (DStv 404) and SABC Encore (DStv 156) channels to MultiChoice DStv satellite pay-TV platform. 

It saw the now-fired controversial chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng pocket a R11.4 million bonus just for signing the contract. 

Questions have also been raised about how the controversial deal links with South Africa's digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration and the issue of set-top box (STB) control, as well as who is in control of the SABC archives. The SABC told parliament that MultiChoice's doesn't control its archive, but said that it is sending "a tape a day" to MultiChoice.

"We are keen as the SABC interim board to see SABC News as a TV news channel continuing, to see SABC Encore continuing."

"Insofar as we are concerned, we would want these SABC channels to continue."

Some SABC stations badly affected by 80% local quota

On Hlaudi Motsoeneng's unilateral and destructive "90% local content" for SABC radio and "80% local content" for SABC3 introduced in mid-2016, Mathatha Tsedu said "the issue has never been about whether it is good or bad to have more local content."

"It is the manner in which the decision was implemented across all platforms without consideration on how it was affecting some platforms.And it's not all platforms. The African language stations were not affected, they were already playing in that zone."

"But stations like Metro FM on some days - especially Sundays - were heavily affected. 5FM, Good Hope FM, Lotus FM - they were badly affected," said Mathatha Tsedu.

He said SABC platforms badly affected by the decision have been given the right to "correct the process that has been bleeding them".

"SABC stations have lost audiences and as a result they have lost revenue. That is an undeniable fact."

"Similarly with television. SABC1 is okay. SABC2 is not badly affected but SABC3 is."

SABC TV licence fees dip because of bad news

While the SABC on basically a daily basis remains in the news headlines for the wrong reasons, Mathatha Tsedu said "every time there is a cycle of bad news around the SABC, the revenues from the SABC TV licences dip."

"How do you get credibility back into the products that the SABC produces? The credibility of the SABC is not just judged by how Muvhango's story line is going or how 7de Laan's story line is going. The major credibility point of the SABC is its news output."

"The editorial code is now going out for public comment," he said, noting that the SABC is starting a series of workshops for SABC journalists to re-educate themselves on how news at a proper public broadcaster should be done.

The series of workshops will involve all the journalists of the SABC from across South Africa. "We're bringing in experts from different broadcast houses - including the BBC and other journalists - to just start talking about what is it that a public broadcast journalist should be doing and not doing."

"SABC journalists should now feel free to do the things that they have been trained to do and ignore all the things that are not journalistically defensible that they have been told to do."

"If anybody pushes anything on any SABC journalist that is unethical, the SABC board is there as a sounding board, they can come to the board and say 'I'm being forced to do something that is unethical', and we will deal with whoever that person is," said Mathatha Tsedu.

SABC tells parliament: It's 2017 but we're using tapes like it's 1980.

The out-of-cash SABC hovering on the brink of financial collapse has shocked the new interim board members, new communications minister, as well as returning staffers, who discovered that the broadcaster not only has no money for the switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT) but is still using tapes.

Like a real-life Upside Down in the hit Netflix TV drama Stranger Things set in the 1980s, the SABC’s Auckland Park headquarters and its regional offices across the nation are caught in a bizarre time warp, working as if it’s still living in the era of the Sony Walkman, VHS video cassettes and Betamax video players.

Mathatha Tsedu, SABC interim board deputy chairperson revealed to parliament that although the media and broadcasting world of 2017 is a fully digital environment, the beleaguered South African Broadcasting Corporation is operating in an old and outdated analogue bubble as if it’s still the 1980s. 

“The majority of the SABC’s outside broadcasting (OB) trucks that do the outside broadcasts are analogue,” Tsedu told parliament’s portfolio committee on communications.

“So we need to replace them. It’s just that simple.”

“The SABC buys content outside in digital form. But when we store it, because we don’t have digital storage, we store it in tapes. So we buy it as 2017 content, and we store it as 1980 format.”

Mathatha Tsedu explained to parliament how the SABC will have perform a Back to the Future like miracle maneuver to catch up with digital broadcasting at some point in the future.

“When the SABC eventually gets money to get a digital library we’re going to have to take our 2017 content – that we took back to 1980 – back to whatever the year will be when we do that,” said Mathatha Tsedu.

“Even in the news broadcasts, the final output of news still goes, some of it, in tape – in 2017! There’s need for a huge budget that should help us to cross over.”

Current affairs ‘still working on tapes’

An SABC current affairs producer in mid-April during a "rediffusion" staff session with the new SABC interim board, told the board that she was shocked to find upon her return to the South African public broadcaster that the SABC still works with tapes.

She stood up and said “I returned to the SABC 20 months ago. It was like moving back in time."

"The technology or the lack of technology in this place is shocking. In TV current affairs we're still working on tapes."

"In current affairs there are 7 or 8 cameramen available to all the current affairs programmes. We've been told we can only have one cameraman, per programme, per week. How are we supposed to shoot our inserts?"

Dumile Mateza, TV news presenter said the SABC News (DStv 404) channel the SABC supplies to MultiChoice’s DStv satellite pay-TV platform “is under threat."

"The channel started in 2013. We had a channel head. Today SABC News doesn't have a channel head. It means the channel has been driven by freelancers, all the time. All the staff you see on that channel has been driven by freelancers."

"When the SABC got the chance to set up this channel on DStv, they got the opportunity to start something that they could take forward once digital TV migration comes in. SABC News has been neglected."

"We have been rudderless on the SABC News channel since Themba Mthembu retired three years ago and we have been left to our own devices."

Poobie Pillay, an SABC advertising executive said "Landmark was implemented last year April. Landmark is an ad booking system that was meant to book client adverts and run across all 18 SABC radio stations. Landmark wasn't tested before implementation, there was no research done as to why we should use this software system for radio."

"The SABC has lost million by using and implementing the Landmark system. My colleagues and I've got clients on a daily basis ... we've got, Afrikaans ads are on Ukhozi FM; it's just a mess. We can't execute competitions and we are losing millions of rand."

"It's a year later and we're passing credits of over R100 million to clients."

No money for digital TV switch

Last week Ayanda Dlodlo, the new minister of communications, told parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) that the SABC doesn’t have any money for the broadcaster’s long-delayed switch from analogue to digital TV (DTT), a process known as digital migration.

In September 2011 SABC executives and the board promised parliament that the SABC’s DTT offering will entail 18 TV channels – 17 TV channels and one interactive video service channel.

In May 2015 the SABC’s former controversial chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng said the SABC will launch its DTT offering with only 5 channels.

In April 2016 Hlaudi Motsoeneng said the SABC will launch 4 so-called “language-based” TV channels: one Sesotho, Setswana and Sepedi language TV channel; one Nguni focused channel for Zulu, Xhosa, Siswati and Ndebele; a third channel for Tsonga and Venda language speakers; and a fourth SABC TV channel for Afrikaans viewers.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng said he secured R1 billion for the SABC for the production of new local TV content for these "language-based" channels. Over a year later, again nothing materialised.

Ayanda Dlodlo told SCOPA that the SABC’s latest bailout request to treasury – similar to the one it got in 2009 in the form of a R1.47 billion government guaranteed loan from Nedbank – was completely inadequate, since the SABC, beyond staying afloat, must also switch to digital broadcasting.

“What was presented to me, does not take account of that fact that we are moving from analogue to digital. Therefore the funding request does not cover all of those things that are related to the migration from analogue to digital.”

“So to me, it was a funding request that was inadequate. It was almost like putting Elastoplast on a wound, instead of treating the wound,” said Ayanda Dlodlo.

While other South Africa broadcasters like M-Net and available streaming services in Africa like Naspers’ ShowMax and Netflix work in a fully digital environment with digital playout and literally beam episodes and seasons of shows in by satellite to vast digital libraries, the SABC struggles on with tapes.

In April the SABC experienced severe schedule disruption and had to delay the start of the new season of Survivor San Juan Del Sur on SABC3 when the channel’s playout division suddenly discovered technical issues with the tape it was unable to fix in time for broadcast.

Khanyisile Kweyama recommended as new SABC chairperson of the to be appointed interim SABC board.

Khanyisile Kweyama has been recommended in an urgent meeting by parliament's parliament's portfolio committee on communications to become the new SABC chairperson of the to be appointed SABC interim board.

The beleaguered SABC, mired in allegations of corruption, mismanagement and maladministration has been left rudderless for months.

The SABC has been without any SABC board or board members, no permanent CEO and COO for months and has been absolutely gutted after the firing of numerous top executives who are all gone after the sprawling internal management destruction wreaked inside the public broadcaster by the controversial former COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The respected veteran journalist and former newspaper editor Mathatha Tsedu were recommended as deputy SABC chairperson, while Krish Naidoo, Febe Potgieter-Gqubule and John Mattison were recommended as interim SABC board members.

Krish Naidoo is a former SABC board member. He resigned spectacularly and with dramatic effect in late December 2016 in parliament during parliament's investigation into the shocking maladministration of the SABC and made several damning revelations about the SABC's flouting of corporate governance requirements.

Veteran journalist and editor John Mattison is a former broadcasting regulator councillor and responsible for the SABC's election coverage in 1994.

Khanyisile Kweyama who has a masters degree in management from Wits university, is the former CEO of Business Unity South Africa (Busa) and a former executive director of Anglo American SA, the first woman to hold such position at that company, and a former Telkom board member.

Khanyisile Kweyama also served on the National Planning Commission appointed by the president and served on a provincial group fighting racism in Gauteng, appointed by the Gauteng premier.

What happens now is that the portfolio committee on communication's report, recommending the interim SABC chairperson and interim SABC board members, is sent to the National Assembly.

On Wednesday the report is tabled at the National Assembly, after which it is sent to president Jacob Zuma to basically rubber-stamp and approve the appointments, making it official.

'We gotta get out! We gotta get out!' How eNCA's panicked Iman Rapetti and SABC News' Chriselda Lewis reacted on live TV when #FeesMustFall turned violent.

"We gotta get out! We gotta get out!" said Iman Rappetti, eNCA (DStv 403) anchor and reporter, with the panic very clearly audible in her voice as loud thuds became audible against the side of the vehicle.

Elsewhere on the burning lawns of the Union Buildings, the SABC News' (DStv 404) star reporter Chriselda Lewis fought her own battle trying to rescue an interrupted live interview on the air as a scuffle with angry protesters was shown on live South African television as well.


It was just two of the incidents that were shown live on South African television news on Friday as panicked and stressed TV news reporters and TV news crews tried to cover the #FeesMustFall student protest and march at the Union Buildings on Friday.

Besides TV news, several radio reporters and newspaper journalists also reported that they were threatened with physical violence and at least one SABC cameraman and one BBC cameraman got injured following students throwing rocks and other objects.

Earlier in the day, Patrick Conroy, eNCA managing director, reminded all eNCA staff that safety covering stories and events come first and that they should leave any place immediately when they no longer feel safe where they are.

A heavy-handed police presence - firing tear gas, stun grenades, chasing students and firing a water cannon - at the Union Building only served to escalate tensions and violence on Friday.

It was made worse by the South African president Jacob Zuma's failure to address students protesting over student fees, directly, after government officials over a loudspeaker earlier in the day told them that he would.

The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) says it is concerned by intimidation and harassment reports of the media by the police and protesters.

"We're shocked by the fact that journalists were targeted by the police and some of the protesters," says Sanef director Mathatha Tsedu.

"We've called on the police to ensure that they stick to the agreement that we have with them."

"We note with concern that some journalists, including a reporter from the BBC and an eNCA cameraman, were injured after rocks were thrown at police and journalists at the Union Buildings."

"Equipment was damaged and there were also reports of theft. Sanef commends those students who intervened and forced their peers to return the equipment."

Although the day's student fees protest started out peaceful, it descended into chaos and violence.

It looked as if South African TV news crews were not adequately prepared for covering the story on Friday in terms of taking adequate security measures and back-up plans to safeguard their own well-being as well as protecting their equipment and live broadcasts.

It was foreseeable that the lawns of the Union Buildings could erupt and turn into a so-called "hot zone" given the violent events that played out earlier the week at parliament and at universities across South Africa.

Yet South African TV news crews, instead of just covering the story, also became the story.

The question can be asked whether TV news crews took enough precautions or did enough security analysis and pre-planning for the unpredictable event and if they could have made better choices given what they knew could happen (and which then did).

Spots they reported from came under attack from pelting rocks and stones, outside broadcast vans were damaged and warned that it could be set alight, reporters and cameramen were hit with rocks and flying objects, and equipment from satellite vans to cameras were broken, vandalised and couldn't be used anymore.

It not clear how TV news crews planned to make a quick exit and retreat with satellite vans from where they chose to park surrounded by thousands of students.

Was it possible to take some, or more if they did, of their own security protection personnel to help shield reporters and whisk them to safety if they came under attack or if violence broke out (which it did)?

Some different metrics and a different guidebook is used reporting from conflict zones and war zones - something not a lot of South African TV news reporters and anchors have experience in, or experienced.

The lawns of the Union Buildings on Friday afternoon turned into a conflict zone where a different set of news rules work better although the news values of trying to get the news out and reporting it remain unchanged. TV news should have anticipated that.

South African TV news did great work on Friday in extremely unpredictable and difficult circumstances.

Yet I cannot help but wonder if they couldn't have thought longer, have been wiser and more prudent, and have prepared a bit better before beforehand.

eNCA's bad and uncorrected journalism - ironically in a story ABOUT journalism - makes for ironic and cringe-worthy news television.

Face palm: The eNCA (DStv 403) 24-hour South African TV news channel has horrific mistakes in a bad journalism story - ironically about journalism - incorrectly identifying veteran journalists on-screen, and not correcting it even for the eNCA website's online version.

In a story from junior reporter Thabang Masanabo - and not caught and corrected by the various line-producers or journalists who are supposed to spot it instantly and fix it - veteran South African journalists who are not immediately identified audibly which would have mitigate the errors, have the wrong on-screen identity barkers displayed in the lower third graphics.

Who is supposed to check Thabang Masanabo's work at eNCA and checks the video editing, and who checks the loaded on-screen graphic identifiers?

Who is supposed to check the online video before its placed and made live on the eNCA.com website - or is all online video simply being taken from eNCA's broadcast hub with no editorial sub editing or any editor relooking at it first?

To identify someone like the veteran South African journalist Mathatha Tsedu as Thabang Masanabo, and to  do the same with others like the very first person interviewed and not called and identified by name, makes for cringe-worthy news reporting television.

It makes it feel as if nobody at eNCA - and who are journalists - really know other, or veteran journalists, or how they look like.

Veteran journalists John Perlman and Pippa Green were identified correctly but the others mistakes by Sunday afternoon were not corrected.

File footage included in the story is not even marked as such or as "archive material" - earlier this year eNCA told the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) it would be vigilant in identifying file footage as such when and where it is included in stories.

The 9 minute story - broadcast mistakes and all - has been loaded onto the eNCA.com website with the same mistakes in its entirety, making for ongoing, highly embarrassing television which nobody at eNCA either spotted, or cared to correct.

It is ironically doubtful if eNCA's Thabang Masanabo "vetaran journalist", will get to real "veteran journalist" level with eye-popping mistake packages like this attached to her name.