SABC staffers to wear black on Wednesday in 'mourning' over massive retrenchment plan as public protest action starts; daily picketing planned to kick off from Friday with possible strike action looming.

Many angry, shocked and scared SABC staffers are planning on wearing black today, as part of the start of visible protest action on Wednesday against massive planned retrenchments at the South African public broadcaster, with picketing planned to kick off on Friday that could lead to a new strike and stay-aways as up to a third of SABC workers face the axe.

While wasteful and irregular spending of millions at the technically insolvent SABC continues, the SABC's small top executive brass and SABC board raking in millions per year in salaries plan to cull up to 981 of the 3 376 full-time workers - a third of the SABC workforce - with half or 1 200 of the 2 400 freelancers employed by the SABC who will get fired and be gone by February 2019.

It's part of the latest turn-around strategy of the SABC's top management, led by CEO Madoda Mxakwe, to ruthlessly cut costs at the beleaguered and bloated public broadcaster once again hovering on the brink of financial collapse after years of mismanagement and looting, corruption and wasteful spending - including a litany of irregular appointments, irregular salary increases for some execs and staffers, and massive bonus pay-outs.

The Broadcasting, Electronic, Media & Allied Workers Union (Bemawu) and the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), the two biggest trade unions inside the SABC, plan to kick off protest action on Wednesday with SABC staffers who have been asked to wear black clothes today.

SABC workers wearing black will this time be symbolic of staffers "mourning" the direction the South African public broadcaster is taking and the looming mass retrenchments.

The last time SABC staffers including SABC News on-air talent wore black in silent protest was on Friday 22 July 2016, then in open revolt against the now-fired former chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng, his draconian news censorship plan and newsroom intimidation, as well as the firing of the so-called "SABC 8" journalists that the Labour Court later ordered to be rehired.

On Friday during lunch time SABC staffers will publicly protest and picket outside the SABC's Auckland Park headquarters in Johannesburg as well as at the SABC's regional offices countrywide, and plan to hand over a memorandum to SABC management, as well as to Nomvula Mokonyane, South Africa's current minister of communications.

The public picketing is expected to continue next week, daily until there's a change in plans, and could be followed by a new strike aimed at further destabilising the SABC as a defense against the retrenchment plan.

SABC strike action by the unions last hit the public broadcaster exactly a year ago in November 2017 when workers as part of a massive stay-away demanded salary increases and with more on-air mistakes than usual that quickly evident on the SABC's TV channels and radio stations and its SABC News (DStv 404) channel.


Here is how the SABC day-in-black has appeared to viewers so far on SABC News (DStv 404) on Wednesday morning:
(this will continuously be updated as Wednesday unfolds)

Of course there are always exceptions.

Someone forgot to tell Dicksy doing the Xhosa weather on SABC1 on Wednesday evening that red ain't the colour code for the day at the SABC.

Similarly, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, the SABC's correspondent in New York at the United Nations who reported on Wednesday about the American midterm elections, didn't seem to have gotten the memo either.

SABC news boss Phathiswa Magopeni covers Acumen business magazine, reveals how she had been openly mocked inside SABC corridors where she's trying to 'turn the SABC elephant'.

The new SABC news boss, Phathiswa Magopeni (48) is on the latest cover of Acumen, the business magazine of the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria, talking about "turning the SABC elephant", and revealing how SABC staffers openly mocked her when she arrived.

Phathiswa Magopeni is currently hard at work trying to improve the SABC and SABC News' reputation and the credibility of the public broadcaster's newsroom operations, while she is working on her PhD at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).

In the fascinating 4-page article cover story, Phathiswa Magopeni (complete with an error in the spelling of her name on the Acumen cover) who returned to the SABC in March this year, reveals how she had been mocked inside SABC corridors when she returned.

An SABC staffer for instance told her in her face that "several people have tried and failed and it's men who have tried".

Another said: "Who do you think you are and how do you think you're going to change the environment?"

She reveals that so far there's been no late night editorial calls from South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, the country's latest current minister of communications, Nomvula Mokonyane, or ANC political party leaders.

About revamping SABC News she says "In crowded spaces like ours there are tough choices to be made, such as exercising disciplined focus and remaining absolutely clear about who you are, and what you are about and what you cannot be as a news outlet."

"We are going to tell this story in its light and shade."

Phathiswa Magopeni who visited the SABC's 30 offices in all 9 provinces says she will have to make tough decisions on who moves forward with her among the SABC's 950 news staff that includes 300 freelancers.

"We need to allow constructive dissent within the newsroom and no editor is going to say 'shut up'. Because if you don't listen I have no reason to believe you are going to bring the multiplicity of voices in our news content," she says.

"If you don't listen to the forces that make you uncomfortable here, I have no reason to believe that you are going to bring in different voices from outside."

SABC1’s Uzalo sets a new South African TV ratings high-water mark of 10.2 million viewers.

SABC1's and South Africa's most watched TV show, Uzalo has set a new viewership high-water mark with the second episode of its recent two-parter wedding storyline that reached 10.2 million viewers - a new record-high for South African television.

Uzalo set in KwaMashu in KwaZulu/Natal and produced by Stained Glass Pictures, has been South Africa's most watched TV show and the number one show on SABC1.

Uzalo however improved on its own record on 25 September by reaching a combined 10 251 231 viewers (29.3 AR / 74 share) for the wedding drama when the scorned, gun-wielding MaNgcobo (Dawn Thandeka King) showed up in a wedding dress at the wedding of her common-law husband Nkunzi (Masoja Msiza) and love rival MaMlambo (Gugu Gumede). 

The previous South African viewing record was on 11 June 2010 for the opening match between South Africa and Mexico of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa that reached 10 146 793 viewers but that comes with an asterisk - the figure is of the combined audience who watched it on SABC1 and SuperSport 3 on MultiChoice's DStv.

While Uzalo is luring viewers to SABC1 as the SABC's biggest show, it is ironically one of the shows the SABC struggles to pay, with Stained Glass Pictures that shut down production on Uzalo for a week early last month, and with the production company that was also asked to take over the responsibility of looking after the imploded Uselwa, that also filmed on location in Eshowe in KZN and ran out of money.

Meanwhile e.tv's weekday soap Scandal! managed to reach 6 million viewers for the first time in August this year, reaching 6 021 421 viewers for its episode on 15 August, but falling back to around 5.5 million during September.

Mmamitse Thibedi, Uzalo executive producer says "words cannot explain how thrilled and grateful we are to hit this milestone".

"The entire team pulled out the stops to give memorable, enthralling story lines, and audiences responded by keeping their screens locked onto Uzalo. The writers, cast and entire production team delivered over and beyond, and we are all committed to continuing on this upward trend."

Fabian Rainers, SABC1 commissioning editor, says "Uzalo's magic lies in it's ability to consistently portray story lines that resonate with society and deliver authentic, credible story lines".

"These record viewership figures are testament to the fact that the drama is connecting with audiences in a meaningful way, and making a real impact. We're excited that the show has reached this milestone and than the audience for affirming the work so kindly."

Although struggling to pay producers, the embattled SABC in a statement says it is "delighted with the performance of one of its flagship television programmes, Uzalo".

Nomsa Philiso, the SABC's group executive for television, in a statement says "the partnership with Stained Glass Productions is one that keeps exceeding all expectations. We are confident that the programme is in line with our strategy of growing audiences, and meeting the needs and expectations of the South African public".

Nomvula Mokonyane, South Africa's current minister of communications, in a statement says she congratulates "the producers, actors and actresses and crew of Uzalo, on the soapie becoming the first television show in South Africa to clock the 10 million viewers mark in South African television history".

"Congratulations to Uzalo for setting the bar high by clocking a never-been-done-before 10 million viewers mark in South African television history. A baby in the industry at just three years of existence, the soapie achieved what its peers with decades on television are yet to achieve. They came, they saw, and they conquered. The bar is set," says Nomvula Mokonyane.

"This is the first time a project spearheaded by a young, black and female producer has hit such a milestone in South African television history. This is proof that where there is hard work and dedication, there is success. This should be an example to other aspiring producers."

"We celebrate black excellence and are hopeful that with our migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television, more young, black producers will come forth to exploit the opportunities that will be presented by the new multi-channel environment."

Nomvula Mokonyane, minister of communications, slams SABC board's insistence of firing staffers 'as the only solution', opposes the SABC's retrenchment plan that includes shutting down provincial offices and reducing provincial staffers.

Nomvula Mokonyane, South Africa's current minister of communications, on Monday slammed the cash-strapped and struggling SABC top executive for its turn-around plan and the SABC's top brass plan to fire hundreds of staffers, saying she and the ministry of communications are opposed to the SABC's retrenchment plan that includes shutting down provincial offices and reducing provincial SABC staffers.

Nomvula Mokonyane, South Africa's 10th minister of communications in 10 years, said she is strongly opposed to possible retrenchment of SABC staffers, and that she had "expressed her dissatisfaction with the preferred methods of implementation of the turn-around plan submitted by the SABC board for to the minister for concurrence".

"While the minister appreciates the precarious financial position of the public broadcaster and the urgent need to contain costs, the minister has lamented the fact that despite numerous meetings with the SABC board on the need for a comprehensive approach to turnaround of the public broadcaster, the board has insisted on retrenchment as the foremost and only solution".

Nomvula Mokonyane's statement on Monday echoed a chorus of criticism directed as the SABC board and the broadcaster's top management, with the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) that also weighed in earlier during the day and likewise slammed the SABC's "cruelty", saying SABC staffers are "once again,at the receiving end of leadership abuse and negligence" at the broadcaster.

Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO has warned staffers about the South African public broadcaster's "dire financial state" after the SABC started the process of job cuts and retrenchments to downsize the SABC's staff numbers.

A week after the SABC chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini played coy, didn't want to talk about SABC staff firings and wasn't willing to be upfront about the SABC that has been looking at drastically shedding another 800 jobs, Madoda Mxakwe finally told SABC staffers following a meeting on Thursday with trade unions, that the SABC's wage bill is unsustainable.

The SABC posted a loss of R622 million for the 2017/2018 financial year with the country's Auditor-General (AG), Kimi Makwetu, saying he can't determine whether the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster remains a going concern.

Longtime staffers and producers who have been with SABC News since the channel's start-up five years ago already got axed at the end of August although despite the SABC renewed its controversial multi-million rand channel carriage carriage with Naspers' MultiChoice to continue carrying the news channel on DStv for the next few years.

Around 3 000 of the SABC's staff headcount are permanent employees, while the rest are fixed-term and freelance workers.

A staggering amount of the SABC's expenditure goes to just paying staffers, although just 60% are directly involved in programming. The SABC is supposed to spend the bulk of its money on creating and broadcasting content.

The SABC says one of the SABC's biggest cost drivers is the salary bill and that although it is a R7.2 billion revenue generating company, it's saddled with a massive annual salary bill of R3.1 billion.

On Monday Nomvula Mokonyane said "any retrenchment exercise must be a last resort and an integral part of a holistic, well-formulated and broadly canvassed turn-around plan aimed at steering the SABC towards future financial sustainability".

Nomvula Mokonyane says she has raised concerns about the "odd approach by the SABC board which ignores the advice and support" of the department of communications and that is "inconsistent with the principles of good corporate governance, mutual interest and public good".

"Throughout her numerous engagement with the SABC, Nomvula Mokonyane had insisted on the process being objective and open to technical support by the shareholder and the National Treasury, hence she established a turn-around task-team comprising the department of communications and National Treasury to work with the SABC in this regard."

Nomvula Mokonyane slammed the SABC's turn-around plan on Monday saying that it lacks "details regarding how much the said retrenchments will save the company both in the short-, medium- and long-term".

"The proposal to close certain offices and reducing staff does not demonstrate the service delivery impact analysis of the said restructuring and scaling down of employees per division, province and occupational category".

According to Nomvula Mokonyane the SABC's turn-around plan is "silent on revenue enhancement initiatives, including an improvement plan for the collection of TV licences and the possible disposal of non-core and under-utilised immovable assets and properties, which is crucial for the financial sustainability of the SABC."

"The SABC is a national asset and as a public broadcaster its well-being is not the exclusive domain of the board and its management but that of all stakeholders with an interest in its sustainability."

BREAKING. SABC gets another R1.2 billion bailout in the form of the government allowing the commercially insolvent public broadcaster to raise its credit extension cap; producers, Sentech and Safa to be paid urgently.

The commercially insolvent SABC is being given another government bailout of R1.2 billion in the form of the South African government's National Treasury allowing the beleaguered South African public broadcaster, once again hovering on the brink of financial collapse, to increase its credit extension cap.

Independent South African producers, signal distributor Sentech, the South African Football Association (Safa) and a litany of other service providers are collectively owed hundreds of millions of rands by the SABC and will be paid urgently using the money from the enlarged loan extension.

Nomvula Mokonyane, South Africa's minister of communications, revealed in parliament that the SABC is being granted another R1.2 billion bailout, following its bailout of R1.47 billion 2009 in the form of a government-guaranteed loan from Nedbank.

The government is again bailing out the SABC which cannot find anybody to lend it money and that and once again posted its 8th consecutive, annual loss of R622 million for the financial year until the end of March 2018.

The South African government and taxpayers become responsible and carries the burden should the SABC default on the R1.2 billion credit extension.

Nomvula Mokonyane blamed unspecified "historical challenges" for the SABC's financial woes, instead of corruption, mismanagement and a lack of governance, saying "even the Auditor-General has alluded to because the primary challenges of the SABC have to do with historical debt, the commitments that have been made, and of importance issues around content, and quality of that particular content."

Nomvula Mokonyane, speaking in parliament said "as of a day ago, National Treasury has granted consent for the SABC to increase its borrowing limit from the capital markets in line with the public finance management act, and the broadcasting act".

She said "the SABC has been given borrowing powers and a borrowing limit of up to R1.2 billion by National Treasury".

Nomvula Mokonyane said "at this stage the SABC board and management have assured that employees of the broadcaster will continue to receive their salaries as per the norm with without prejudice. Equally suppliers owed by the broadcaster have been in engagements with the SABC and there's been progress in effecting payments to creditors".

"Monies raised through the process consented to by National Treasury will also be used to pay creditors including independent producers, Sentech and the South African Football Association".

"We are quite confident that in line with the payment plan that the SABC has put together, we'll be able to attend to these issues."

"Secondly these funds will be utilised to acquire new content to replenish the current content offering, so as to attract new audiences that's generating commercial renevues, but also bring back home those that have walked away from the SABC."

"As a responsible government we will not allow the SABC to collapse and are committed to providing the SABC board and management with our continued support to ensure that this national asset continues to serve millions of South Africans with knowledge and entertainment".

Nomvula Mokonyane said "working through with the minister of finance we have been able to give the necessary support for the SABC to have an increased borrowing limit".

e.tv and the SABC silent over the drop-off danger and the threat of disappearing audiences in South Africa's digital terrestrial TV switch-over.

South Africa's two biggest free-to-air broadcasters - e.tv and the SABC - are both silent over the looming danger, and the horrific implications for their respective audience ratings, when millions of viewers nationwide could be disappearing in the country's switch-over to digital terrestrial television (DTT) as the government warns that it is nearing the point where it will start shutting down analogue signals for entire provinces.

With South Africa's stalled decade-long switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting - a process known as digital migration - moving forward with lurching imprecision, the department of communications last week announced that it plans to switch off all analogue TV signals to the entire Free State province.

Also of concern is that the minister of communications's new Broadcasting Digital Migration Advisory Council that have representatives from broadcasters and the TV industry, doesn't include any members who are directly representing the South African viewing public or civic organisations that are representing public broadcasting interests.

Nomvula Mokonyane, the minister of communications, last week warned that in the "the countdown to the Free State Province switch-off by December 2018" that people in this province need to get their set-top box (STB) they need to continue watching the SABC and e.tv's free TV channels.

The South African government, after missing the international June 2015 deadline to complete the process, is now under pressure to try and make its next self-imposed deadline of June 2019 to switch off all analogue TV signals nationally.

Only people receiving social grants and those earning less than R3 200 per month qualify for a free, government subsidised STB.

Struggling South African families in the so-called "middle income group" - those earning more than R3 200 but less than R6 500 - as well as those earning more, are getting no government support and will have to buy a STB costing around R700 or a new integrated digital TV set.

Many of these TV households don't know that they qualify for a free STB, don't know that they need to buy one or about the DTT process, or can't afford to suddenly buy a STB even if they earn more than R3 200.

TV households who don't switch will be cut off and lose the existing free SABC, e.tv and community TV channels they've been watching when analogue signals get cut.

The looming problem comes in when the department of communications starts to cut off whole provinces, like its plan for the Free State come December 2018, when thousands of TV households either haven't switched to using a government-subsidised STB, or haven't bought one because they don't know about it or can't afford it.


How many will disappear from the TV ratings universe?
That will not just lead to analogue TV households losing public access to existing free-to-air TV channels, but e.tv and the SABC as broadcasters losing swathes of viewers who will completely drop out of existence from the overall so-called "TV universe" - the sampling of South African households with a TV set making up the matrix used for compiling the country's national TV ratings.

The South African government is supposed to keep both analogue and its parallel DTT signals going - a process known as "dual illumination" - until the bulk of existing analogue TV households have migrated and it's safe to switch analogue off.

With its announced December 2018 shut-down deadline for the Free State, it appears that the department of communications will switch off analogue signals even if the bulk of Free State province TV households have not switched to DTT in just 4 months' time.

It's not clear how TV ratings services and the Broadcasting Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) - overseeing radio and television audience measurement research and TV ratings for broadcasters, as well as the advertising and marketing industry - are going to handle the issue of the potential drop-off and disappearance of millions of viewers watching public TV channels when their access to analogue signals are taken away.

A week ago Vasili Vass, eMedia Investments group head of corporate affairs, was asked for comment as to whether it's a concern for e.tv, given that a sizeable chunk of TV audience watching e.tv are making use of analogue TV signals and might simply disappear if they have not switched to DTT.

e.tv was also asked for the broadcaster's view on how the switch from analogue to DTT might impact e.tv in terms of possible loss of its available audience because of the swith, but Vasili Vass didn't respond to the written media enquiry.

Last week the SABC was asked the same questions regarding the viewing audience of the public broadcaster watching SABC channels through its analogue signals, and the threat of audiences vanishing when analogue is switched off before viewers have switched over.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago likewise didn't respond to the written media enquiry.


'A real problem' William Bird, director at Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), told TVwithThinus that it's a problem that the public interest isn't represented on the minister of communications' Digital Broadcasting Advisory Council.

"This is indeed a real problem - it means that the public interest is likely to be marginalised in favour of what works for big industry. This is a real problem. We are working on it," he said.

Speaking about DTT and STBs William Bird said "the real question is whether DTT is already dead in the water".

"MMA's view is that its time has passed and we need to be looking to other methods, specifically satellite and broadband to ensure connection for all and to ensure that all people have access to free-to-air services."

"Satellite is already in more than 50% of all homes in South Africa. The costs for reaching all people with DTT are massively prohibitive and will also involve upgrading equipment that is already out of date as well as doing more work on the actual spectrum."

"We see form international experience that DTT will be gone from many countries in the not too distant future."

Meanwhile Marian Shinn, the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament looking after telecommunications, says the Broadcasting Digital Migration Advisory Council "seems to be aimed only at delivering the short-term goal of analogue broadcasting switch-off to the Free State by December 2018, as well as chalking up a pre-election 'achievement for the 2019 general election".

According to Marian Shinn, the minister of communications Nomvula Mokonyane, "ducked out of a joint meeting of the portfolio committees on communications and telecommunications and postal services scheduled for 5 June to discuss the status of the broadcasting digital migration programme".

"The committees' last had a progress report from the former minister of communications, Faith Muthambi, in September 2016".

"The DA once again repeats the callfor a 2-day public hearing in parliament to comprehensively review the entire broadcasting digital migration programme," she said.

"The hearings should look at the full cost of implementing the programme and how this will be funded, determine whether the corrupted government-sponsored STB-programme should be scrapped in favour of integrated digital TV sets [and] how the programme will be funded".

"We also need to know whether to upgrade signal distributor Sentech's terrestrialdigital transmission infrastructure, which has been largely unused since it was erected to meet the International Telecommunications Union's analogue switch-off deadline of 17 June 2015, or switch the entire digital broadcasting programme to satellite transmission."

"The switch-off of the analogue broadcasting signal is extremely urgent to free up desperately needed spectrum for mobile broadband use, but it would be foolish and probably wasteful to focus only on ways to now fast-track an outdated, corrupted, and inadequately-funded process," Mariann Shinn said.

MultiChoice to SABC: Hands off our DStv subscriber information, says SABC TV Licence an old, outdated regulation.

MultiChoice is adamant that the South African public broadcaster will never get its hands on the DStv subscriber information of the millions of the Naspers pay-TV operator's customers - and neither will MultiChoice ever tack on the annual SABC TV Licence fee as another line item on subscribers' monthly bills to collect this money on behalf of the SABC.

The SABC's TV Licence fees collection department has been a shambles the past few years. Last month 26 staffers got fired after showing up for work this year during a period of an unprotected "go-slow" during which they did nothing.

The SABC board told parliament last week that due to the go-slow that started on 12 February, SABC Licence fee call centre staffers would "show up for work but did not answer incoming calls and closed off their phone lines" so that the public couldn't get through with billing and other queries or issues about payments.

Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane revealed that the SABC is owed a staggering more than R25 billion (R25 588 801 443)  in outstanding SABC TV Licence fees over the past three years.

Less than a third of South African TV households pay their SABC TV licence. The SABC has just over 9 million TV licence holders of which only 2.6 million have paid in full by April 2017 and wrote off a massive R4.5 billion due to "invalid" accounts in the 2016/2017 financial year.

On Monday night a caller, Lorraine on SAfm, told Chris Maroleng, SABC COO, that "there's a lot of confusion under a lot of people about who collect TV Licence payments for the SABC out there. Is it the SABC itself or third-parties? People have been continually harassed by debt collectors."

Twice in the past the SABC in parliament over the past decade - first in July 2009 and then in May 2017 - made suggestions that companies like MultiChoice, M-Net and others should be compelled to collect the SABC's TV Licence fee on the public broadcaster's behalf, and that the SABC wants MultiChoice to share its DStv subscriber information.

The former acting SABC CEO, James Aguma, now gone under a cloud, last year shocked parliament when he said the SABC wants the Broadcasting Act changed so that the TV Licence fee is expanded to include more viewing devices like computers, cellphones and tablets, and that DStv should collect SABC TV licence fees on behalf of the SABC. 

Recently the SABC's latest board told parliament that it is once again investigating alternative new ways around the collection of SABC TV Licence revenue.

In an interview with Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice South Africa CEO, TVwithThinus asked him to clarify MultiChoice's stance on whether it will give the SABC access to DStv subsriber information, or bill subscribers for SABC TV Licence fees and pay that over to the public broadcaster.

"No. Let me confirm, the law is very clear on information that can be shared and cannot be shared, and that information cannot be shared with anybody without the consent of the subscriber directly."

"But let me just touch on TV Licence: TV Licence is an old regulation that was done years back when people only consumed content through a TV and therefore you used a TV Licence to be able to support the public broadcasting mandate."

"What we have seen all over the world is that they recognise that people no longer use a TV set to view content and therefore it's irrelevant in this day and time. What many countries have tried to do is to link it either as a public service mandate - that the population of a country need to recognise that the public broadcaster is providing a good service in terms of its public mandate."

"And they've proposed things like paying through tax - so all the tax payers go through a staggered way of payment, where the highest earners pay a little bit more than those that earn less."

"Other countries have used the electricity bill to be able to get money that goes to assist in serving the public mandate."

"Our view is that that discussion is no longer relevant in this day and time. What we shall be discussing is how do we assist the public broadcaster in fulfilling its mandate because consumption has moved from TV to other means of getting access to content," said Calvo Mawela.

"Therefore it's no longer about the means of getting the content, it's about how do we assist the SABC to fulfill its public mandate".

Democratic Alliance political party reveals ANC party is branding digital terrestrial TV set-top box messages as election marketing; says communications minister lied about new mid-2019 deadline from the ITU to complete digital migration.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) political party wants to know why a logo from the ANC political party and ANC election messaging is appearing on pamphlets encouraging South African to collect free, government-sponsored set-top boxes (STBs) - the decoders people need to watch digital terrestrial television (DTT) as part of the South African government's botched and long deyaled digital migration process from analogue to digital TV.

The DA's member of parliament, Marian Shinn and the party's shadow minister of telecommunications and postal services, on Sunday in a statement said the pamphlets "is a blatant abuse of taxpayers' money and must be stopped".

She also revealed that the department of communications' latest new deadline of June 2019, apparently instituted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) after South Africa missed all of the other previous deadlines including the 17 June 2015 deadline, is apparently bogus.

"The minister of communications now claims that a new deadline of mid-2019 has been agreed to with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a date that coincides with South Africa's next general election".

"Correspondence I have had with the ITU office in Geneva, shows that there is no 2019 deadline for South Africa," said Marian Shinn.

"A parliamentary question I submitted to the minister asking documentary proof of the 'new' deadline has not been answered," said Marian Shinn.

Marian Shinn says she has written to communications minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, the cabinet leader of the Broadcasting DigitalMigration (BDM) project of which the DTT set-top boxes are a component - and responsible for its marketing "to put an immediate stop to the flyers' distribution and have them destroyed".

"I have also written to the ANC National Executive Committee member, Dr Siyabonga Cwele, minister of telecommunications and postal services, who is responsible for the government entities procuring and distributing the decoders to demand an investigation within the ANC to determine who instigated the abuse of a government-funded project under his watch for election purposes and to hold these people to account."

STBs are currently being given out to poor South African households who have to prove that they're earning less than R3200 per month.

The much-delayed digital migration project aims to bring all broadcasting in South Africa from analogue to digital, freeing up spectrum bands to be used by mobile broadband products and services.

Various misguided political decisions, as suspicions over MultiChoice's alleged undue influence on the government's policy regarding conditional access (encryption) of the government-sponsored decoders, as well as drawn-out in-fighting and court battles between MultiChoice and e.tv, as well as other broadcasters and manufacturers, have delayed South Africa's DTT process for a decade.

Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane implicated in irregular tenders and wasting billions on excessive project management fees.

South Africa's latest minister of communications, Nomvula Mokonyane, South Africa's 10th communications minister in 10 years, is being implicated in serious irregularities by Treasury officials and the Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu while she was minister of water and sanitation, like going on a tender deviation spree and wasting billions of rands in project management and professional fees.

The Sunday Times reports that Nomvula Mokonyane splurged billions on excessive project management and professional fees‚ leaving the department she previously oversaw in dire financial problems.

The department was also riddled with leadership instability and a skills crisis and with the tender irregularities and excessive construction costs that increased its fruitless and wasteful expenditure. It also outsourced procurement to a private company.

With less than a third of South Africans paying their TV licences, the struggling SABC is owed more than R25.5 billion in unpaid SABC TV licence fees.

The struggling South African public broadcaster is owed a daunting R25.5 billion in unpaid SABC TV licence fees over just the past 3 years, has been revealed in South Africa's parliament in a written reply by the country's minister of communications.

The SABC remains mired in financial trouble and is owed a whopping R25 588 801 443 by people who have SABC TV licences but who refuse to pay their annual fees.

South Africa's latest minister of communications - the 10th minister of communications in 10 years, Nomvula Mokonyane, made a written reply to Phumzile Van Damme, the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament who wanted to know what the outstanding amount is that the SABC is due in SABC TV licence fees, what amount of money the SABC wrote off in unpaid debt and what the SABC's total number of SABC TV licence holders are.

Nomvula Mokonyane revealed that the SABC is owed a staggering R25 588 801 443 by April 2017 and that the SABC wrote off a massive R4.5 billion due to "invalid" accounts in the 2016/2017 financial year.

Shockingly, less than a third of people with SABC TV licences are bothering to pay their annual fees.

By April 2017 the SABC had just over 9 million SABC TV licence holders, although the SABC TV licence fees of just 2.6 million have been paid in full by that time.