SABC CFO Yolande van Biljon quits, replaced by Tendai Matore as public broadcaster's acting finance boss

by Thinus Ferreira

The SABC's chief financial officer (CFO) Yolande van Biljon has quit, will exit at the end of this month while Tendai Matore will serve as acting CFO while the South African public broadcaster looks for a replacement.

The SABC gave no reason for Yolande van Biljon's resignation.

Yolande van Biljon joined the SABC in 2018 for her first 5-year term and will now exit at the end of November 2024.

"Yolande van Biljon who joined the SABC in 2018 for her first 5-year term, has made invaluable contributions to the organisation," the SABC said in a press statement in Friday afternoon.

"As a member of the leadership team, she has greatly contributed to the strengthening of our financial position, culminating in the achievement of an unqualified audit opinion for the first time in 14 years."

The SABC board, management, and staff extend their sincere gratitude to Yolande van Biljon for her contribution to the organisation. While saddened by her departure, the corporation fully respects her decision and wishes her all the best in her future endeavours."

Tendai Matore will now be the SABC's acting CFO. He's a chartered accountant with an MBA in finance from the Durham Business School in the United Kingdom and has been with the SABC since 2017.

The SABC says it is "prioritising the recruitment of a permanent CFO to ensure continuity and alignment with the SABC's 5-year strategy".

CWU notifies SABC of strike in wage dispute, demands investigation into secret Discover Digital profit-sharing deal for SABC+.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Communications Workers' Union (CWU) has warned the beleaguered South African public broadcaster that its members will strike and demanding a swift investigation into the broadcaster's secret profit-sharing deal with Discover Digital running its SABC+ video streaming service.

The CWU's ongoing wage dispute and planned strike could have serious consequences for the broadcaster in a national election year with any strike action or labour issues that could impact the SABC's election news coverage.

While the Bemawu trade union has accepted a 6% wage increase offer, the CWU is holding out for its initial 9% wage increase, backdated to 1 April 2023. The SABC which made yet another R1.13 billion loss last year, has said it cannot do salary increases.

The CWU plans to go to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to get clarity on the picketing regulations for its planned SABC strike.

Nathan Bowers, CWU bargaining coordinator, in a statement, says the CWU is also demanding an investigation following the suspension of SABC COO Ian Plaatjes and head of video entertainment Merlin Naicker and the resignation of sales boss Reginald Nxumalo after revelations of a secretive 7.5% profit-sharing deal with Discover Digital that runs the broadcaster's SABC+ video streaming service.

The CWU says it demands "for the investigation to be expedited and serious consequences to follow".

"The revelation comes as workers who are members of CWU are in deadlock over the salary increase. The SABC continues to plead poverty while allegations of concealing profit are out there in the media."

"Workers have not had a salary increase for over three years and every time there are financial losses or financial crisis, workers have to become the scapegoat and bear the brunt through no salary increases," Bowers says.

"The plundering of the financial resources of the SABC through shady contracts and unaccounted fruitless and wasteful expenditure every financial year cannot continue and used as an excuse not to give workers a salary increase and their backdated pay. As CWU we will still continue to defend our public broadcaster by keeping an eye on all these questionable deals from all angles."

"While CWU welcomes the suspension of the two executives, we are further calling on the SABC to also place the chief financial officer Yolande Van Biljon on precautionary suspension."

Nathan Bowers says Van Biljon "also has to answer during the investigation as the person who holds the purse of the SABC. As CWU we want to know how the 7.5% slipped through her fingers in this digital deal".

ALSO READ: SABC COO Ian Plaatjes and TV boss Merlin Naicker suspended, ad boss Reginald Nxumalo resigns over undisclosed 7.5% profit-share deal with Discover Digital running SABC+.

Another fire at SABC's radio park complex sees building evacuated after blaze starts in ground floor lift pit a day after finance boss warns broadcaster's dilapidated buildings and studios are in urgent need of upgrade and repair.

by Thinus Ferreira

The latest fire at the South African public broadcaster broke out on Thursday afternoon just before 13:00 at its radio complex in Auckland Park, prompting the evacuation of the building, after the last fire in the same building five years ago in June 2019.

The fire comes a day after the SABC's finance boss warned that the broadcaster's dilapidated buildings and studios are in urgent need of long-overdue infrastructure investment 

It took a fire rescue services team of 12 people an hour to extinguish the blaze after a fire alarm went off at 12:40 causing an evacuation of the 33-storey building.

According to Robert Mulaudzi, Johannesburg emergency services (EMS) spokesperson, the latest SABC fire started in the lift pit area on the ground floor of the building, close to where a lot of paper were being stored. 

No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is not yet known, although SABC staffers said it smelled like "an electrical fire".

According to Mulaidzi the SABC must urgently improve its management and administration.

The fire at the SABC comes just a day after Yolande van Biljon, SABC chief financial officer, told parliament that the South African public broadcaster's buildings and studio facilities at Auckland Park are in a dilapidated state and that millions of rand are needed to renovate the buildings and to bring the studios back up to standard again.

Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson, in a statement, said that "The SABC can confirm a fire incident at its headquarters in radio campus in Auckland Park" and that "staff members have been evacuated from the affected building and an investigation into what caused the fire is also underway."

In a second statement on Thursday at 17:36 she said that the building has "been declared safe by EMS" and that "electricity supply has also been restored".

SABC CEO: 'We're not winning in collecting TV Licences', as broadcaster abandons amnesty plan.

by Thinus Ferreira

"We are just not winning with South Africans in collecting TV Licences." 

This is the stark admission from Nada Wotshela, acting SABC CEO, who briefed parliament's portfolio committee on communications on Wednesday on the public broadcaster's outdated and failed TV Licence system.

Nada Wotshela noted that the SABC has abandoned a proposed SABC TV Licence Amnesty plan, since it was too complex and intricate to put into action.

Instead of replacing the SABC TV Licence regime with a household levy which the country's department of communications has promised to do multiple times over the past two years, the government shocked last week when cabinet approved a bizarre new SABC Bill sent to parliament for debate and that contained no details about it and instead maintains the current TV Licence set-up.

Just 13% - a new record-low - of the 10.8 million TV households on the SABC's database still bother to pay the annual licence fee of R265. 

Millions more TV households have TV sets but watch and stream without any licence and whose details and addresses are unknown to the SABC and who are therefore not getting billed. 

Then there are people and families who emigrated years ago but continue to get bills delivered at South African addresses they had left years ago, people who no longer have any TV set, as well as thousands of deceased people who have invoices with massive arrears that continue to arrive at dead man's door. 

The SABC also sends TV Licence fee bills to indigent people who simply can't afford to pay and people who are jobless, who keep getting billed together with growing arrears and penalties they and will never be able to settle. 

While the SABC gets a forced annual influx of new customers who must pay for a SABC TV Licence when they buy a new TV set, the SABC makes less and less money from effectively a "captive audience".

The SABC TV Licence compliance rate keeps falling year after year, while the fee evasion rate keeps increasing. The fee evasion rate is now up to a record 87% of non-payment for the SABC's 2022/23 financial year. 

"We've billed in excess of R4.5 billion again like we've done most years, but it's been a theme in recent years, we have struggled to collect," Yolande van Biljon, SABC CFO, told parliament.

"Cash collected was only about R773 million," she said. It's R115 million (13%) less than in 2022.

Although the SABC billed R4.651 billion in 2023 - up from R4.414 billion in 2022 - the SABC collected less money (R775 million) than the R890 million it collected in 2022.

Meanwhile, the SABC also once again spent more to collect the ever smaller amount received in licence fees.

In 2022 the SABC spent R64 million on collecting SABC TV Licence fees through debt collection agencies. In 2023 it increased to R67 million.

Nada Wotshela said "We are just not winning with South Africans in collecting TV Licences. We've tried various interventions. The fact that people have so many other choices in how they access our services - they really don't see why they should continue paying SABC TV Licences."

In her presentation, it was noted that a SABC TV Licence Amnesty plan was abandoned.

"Though feedback was received on the Amnesty application, in reflecting on the legislative framework that would empower such an action, it is believed that such does not exist and as such the programme could not proceed."

'A very dim picture': Struggling SABC projects another massive R608 million loss in 2023.

by Thinus Ferreira

After initially projecting a modest profit in 2023, South Africa's public broadcaster has suddenly switched to "a very dim picture" and is now forecasting yet another massive loss of R608 million, as the government warns that 2023 is the final year the SABC will get bailout money.

The SABC which is sitting with no appointed board, is swinging to yet another projected massive loss of R608 million for its 2022/2023 year, with the country's government that cabinet is working on new legislation to make up for the struggling broadcaster's funding gap.

Yolande van Biljon, SABC chief financial officer, told parliament this week that the public broadcaster's initial projection of a profit of R64 million by the end of March 2023 as part of its "bullish" corporate plan it drew up in February this year, is turning into a projected massive loss of R608 million.

According to the SABC's latest shared forecast, the projected R608 million loss will be three times bigger than the net loss of R201 million the SABC racked up for its 2021/2022 financial year.

Yolande van Biljon says the huge loss the SABC is now expected to rack up by the time its current financial year ends by 31 March 2023 is "the consistent underperformance in our advertising revenue as well as SABC TV Licence revenue which has consistently not lived up to the expectation".

"In the TV Licence case, it's largely attributed to the situation in the greater economy, and with classic advertising and sponsorships and issues around that."  The SABC has 238 critical job positions which are vacant.

"Yes, our forecast does predict a very dim picture," Yolande van Biljon said.

Philly Mapulane, deputy minister of South Africa's department of communications and digital technologies, told parliament's portfolio committee on communications and digital technology this week that 2023 will be the last year that the SABC is getting any bailout money and that the government is working on a new bill to fund the financial gap in the SABC's public broadcasting mandate.

"We are in the final stages of finalising the SABC bill that will be coming before the committee, hopefully to be tabled as soon as cabinet has finalised it."

He said that the SABC "has a public mandate but also commercial activities. And the public mandate in our view is not sufficiently and adequately funded. The bill will seek to ensure that the public mandate is sufficiently funded from the fiscus and to separate it from its commercial activities so that the SABC can sustain itself."

"Next year is going to important for the entity because it's going to be the last year that the SABC will be receiving a bailout. So it's the last year of funding from the fiscus for the bailout. So it's an important year for the SABC in terms of its turnaround plan," Philly Mapulane said.

The SABC plans to launch its video streamer as well as new TV channels from September, promises 'compelling new content' as it shakes up its content acquisition process.

by Thinus Ferreira
 
The South African public broadcaster has had to delay the launch of its own video streaming service but now plans to do so from September and during the third quarter of this year – with the SABC that will also launch new TV channels and promising "compelling new content" while it's drastically shaking up the way that it's acquiring content for its existing and planned TV channels.
 
The SABC also admitted publicly for the first time that the government's drastic province-by-province switch-off of analogue transmitters in the country’s long-delayed digital migation process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) is damaging and adding to the SABC's TV audience losses as viewers who haven’t yet switched over are disappearing from the existing TAMS ratings system when they can no longer access TV signals and watch public television.
 
eMedia last year warned that the government’s drastic shutdown of transmitters will negatively impact ratings and in turn the advertising revenue of broadcasters like e.tv and the SABC.
 
The SABC - late to launch its own over-the-top (OTT) video streaming service in South Africa - previously said that it would be launching its own streamer before the end of this financial year, ending 31 March 2022.
 
This has now been pushed to the third quarter of 2022 into the broadcaster’s next financial year. The SABC says that with the launch of its streamer it will also debut new SABC TV channels which will be carried on its streaming services, together with existing ones.
 
Yolande van Biljon, SABC CFO, told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (SCOPA) that the SABC’s revenue decline is driven by the migration of audiences from linear television to digital platforms.
 
“In our new financial year, our focus shifts to putting measures in place to ensure we generate revenue from the digital platforms. There are of course our partnerships with Telkom and eMedia and the likes which also provides us access to their platforms that are additional platforms where we are able to generate revenue from."
 
Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, said "the decline in audience has a direct impact on the decline in advertising revenue".
 
"The decline in audience is multi-causational – the global trend that there is. There’s not much we can do about that. There is an impact on the analogue switch-off but we are managing that with the department of communications and digital technologies."
 
 
SABC moving into the digital space
Ian Plaatjes said that the SABC now plans to launch the public broadcaster's own video streaming service, similar to the BBC's iPlayer, by the third quarter of this year and that a big driver of audience loss for the SABC is audience migration to digital.
 
"Right now we do not have our own digital platform. We have gone to market and are in the final stages of testing the responses of that and we will have our own over-the-top (OTT) platform in the market by the third quarter of the next financial year."
 
"What that means is we're going to be launching additional channels within the new financial year but we are also changing the process of acquiring content for our channels – we are optimising that. It's a big game-changer. You will see a lot more compelling content coming through on our existing platforms but also on the new channels that we are going to be launching that will also be available on our OTT platform."
 
"We will be aggressively playing in the digital space," Ian Plaatjes said.
 
He said that the SABC started testing the software on Tuesday this week that would allow the broadcaster to commercialise its own streamer's platform as well as the third-party platforms it is using.
 
"We will be using it as a pilot phase for this month and will go live from next month. So for the first time, we will start off a financial year where we have the ability to monetise our digital platforms as well."

ALSO READ: South Africa's public broadcaster wants to replace SABC TV Licence with a compulsory 'media levy'.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 29 July 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

Netflix breaks HBO's record for the most Emmy nominations ever.
HBO's Watchmen earned 26 nominations - the most of any show - and the Television Academy gave newcomers Disney+ and Apple TV + their first nominations.
- Emmy 2020 snubs and surprises: Baby Yoda breaks through.
- TV critics on whether television should be celebrating itself when the Covid-19 pandemic rages on.


■ "Kosher Netflix" launches in Israel.
No dancing to be seen as religious Jewish subscribers can press the "Skip" button to protect their modesty and flick past "problematic" scenes in the new video streaming service, Tov.

■ What is the optimum number of seasons for a TV sitcom before it jumps the shark?
Season 7, episode 3.

■ Television cinematography takes a Quantum Leap.

■ Pay-as-you-go for solar-powered pay-TV in Africa.

■ Convicted paedophile worked on the set of New Zealand children's show.

■ Britain's Sky pay-TV operator embraces the possibilities of showcasing Art on television.

■ How 2020 pressed Fast Forward on the video streaming wars.
- And the early winners and losers: The "What's gone right", What's gone wrong" and the "Verdict".


■ Major League Baseball (MLB) shown on ESPN might get cancelled this season because of Covid-19.
- Slimmed-down baseball on TV has broadcast workers worried about job cuts.
- Major League Baseball pulls the rug out from Amazon Prime Video with shortened season.


■ Apple's Apple TV+ video streaming service is off to a very slow start and isn't generating revenue.


■ "Shame on Big Brother Naija."
Is Edafe Ufoma Holy on drugs or something? In a c-r-a-z-y and hilarious rant over MultiChoice and M-Net's latest 5th season of Big Brother Nigeria, "Ebuka, the presenter got penis erection while interviewing that lady with massive breasts", and "The most handsome of all the male contestants is a yellow skin guy but with little manhood".


■ DStv now charging the same for less, says a subscriber, while DStv Customer Service says "We do not have replacement channels".
"We are left with 20-year old repeats and channels which give us films with excessive violence".

■ If Facebook and social media is the new cigarettes, then this is what we must learn fro the 1970's.

■ Hollywood's lost summer.


■ Adewunmi Ogunsanya, MultiChoice Nigeria chairperson recovers after Covid-19.
Unadulterated joy blossoms in the bosoms of relatives, friends and associates of the successful, beefy lawyer who had coronavirus with the news about Erujeje's healing that has sent his people rejoicing and felicitating with him.

■ Australia's version of Farmer Wants a Wife wants to bring back "wholesome reality TV".

■ Nigeria finally adds sign language to national news briefings on TV.
- While South Africa's SABC puts out a new tender looking for sign language service providers for 3 years.

■ The future of video streaming services is ongoing subscriber churn.
Viewers will subscribe and unsubscribe as new content comes and goes that they might be interested in.

■ SABC chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon says the South African public broadcaster wants to get to a place where it doesn't have to ask for government bailouts again.

SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe and other top execs threaten to quit as they reveal shocking SABC board editorial interference and other ridiculous demands like free tickets as board members allegedly 'continue to add chaos and havoc' at the SABC.

The SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe has threatened to quit and is willing to resign and leave the beleaguered South African public broadcaster along with the organisation's other top executives who have revealed shocking SABC board interference in their work, editorial interference and ridiculous demands like wanting free tickets to events they end up being no-show's for.

The Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday reported SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe who said in a SABC board meeting that "SABC board members are continuing to add chaos and havoc" at the SABC, including wanting to give ministers SABC News coverage for "political mileage" and are involved in editorial interference.

Amidst the shocking and detailed allegations, SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe, the outgoing acting COO Dr Craig van Rooyen and CFO Yolande van Biljon have threatened that they're ready to walk over SABC board members' interference in their work and who are not allowed to do so.

One SABC board member allegedly suggested that South African minister be given coverage on SABC News in return for "political mileage" - something that amounts to direct and undue editorial interference.

In other allegations of editorial interference, a state-owned agency demanded that one of the SABC board members be interviewed on SABC News, a state-owned agency where the SABC board member happens to be the CEO.

Shamelessly, SABC board members have allegedly also demanded tickets at SABC board meetings for events ranging from sports and election gala dinners - events to which when they were given tickets ended up being no-shows.

SABC board members are allegedly also unprepared for board meetings and show up late.

The SABC's top executive have labelled SABC board members Mamodupi Mohlala-Malaudzi and Marcia Socikwa as "troublemakers".

Madoda Mxakwe, who described the situation as untenable, told the SABC board in a meeting on 31 July 2019 that it "needs to take a decision whether they want us here or not because these few board members are continuing to add chaos and havoc in this organisation".

"I cannot be expected to lead an organisation where there's constant undermining of what we are doing, particularly in the circumstances we find ourselves in at the SABC."

"It does concern me that these few board members are still continuing to undermine the work that collectively we are doing at the SABC," Madoda Mxakwe told the SABC board.

There's been no statement from the SABC yet.

'On any given day there might be 3 out of 39 lifts working in our buildings in Auckland Park,' the SABC tells parliament.

The technically insolvent South African public broadcaster's precarious situation in terms of its backlog on the maintenance of its physical infrastructure has become so bad that on any given day only 3 out of its 39 lifts at its Auckland Park headquarters is in working order.

So says Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's chief financial officer (CFO), who on Wednesday in parliament painted a dire picture through examples of the SABC's dilapidated and deteriorating infrastructure.

The SABC that owes R1.8 billion to creditors and that is technically insolvent, struggles to pay its staff from month to month and has long since stopped doing capital expenditure on things like maintenance.

As an example of the SABC's delayed spending on capital expenditure which includes things like maintenance, Yolande van Biljon told parliament's committee on public enterprise and communication on Wednesday how terrible the situation with just the elevators inside the SABC is.

"We have to replace all the lifts in Auckland Park. That's R160 million. The lifts are 15 years past lifespan. We keep them together by making ad hoc investments and repairs and maintenance".

"On any given day there might be 3 out of 39 working in our buildings in Auckland Park," said Yolande van Biljon.

In June 2019 a fire in the cafeteria in the SABC's Radio Park building prompted the evacuation of staff with 15 people who were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.

The same Radio Park building was evacuated in May 2019 during a diesel spill that saw thousands of litres of diesel flood the building and down the elevator shaft when a power outage caused the building to switch to its back-up power generator located on the 15th floor. "A failure of the equipment led to the diesel tank overflowing," the SABC said.

SABC executives, as well as former and current SABC board members have been warning for months that the SABC has stopped and failed to do maintenance due to the broadcaster's precarious financial position with the SABC hovering on the edge of collapse and warning that the SABC's "Day Zero" and a black-on-air situation could happen any day.

In November 2018, the former SABC board member Mathatha Tsedu told and warned parliament and the minister of communications that the SABC is turning into a potential death trap.

"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," he 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."

In September 2014 SABC management were furious when staffers put up a self-made notification - an image that was shared and send to TVwithThinus at the time, inside one of the lifts "announcing" that "we are pleased to inform you that Schindler's Lifts are due to be repaired and serviced by the year 2029".

""As a token of our appreciation for your loyalty, you are being encouraged to use the stairs provided for emergency evacuations to proceed to your various work stations".

"Those of you unable to ascend to the top, do not have any ambition in any case and are encouraged to resign," the fake notification told SABC staff.

"We appreciate your patience and know many of you will reach retirement age by the time the lifts are fixed. Together we can climb mountains".

In the internal news letter to staff at the time, a copy of which TV with Thinus obtained, the SABC addressed the lift humour, called it an "act of sabotage" and threatened whoever responsible for the note with disciplinary action.

"We are currently experiencing an abnormal amount of lift outages at this time and as First Citizen you are requested to be patient. The situation is getting a necessary intervention," the SABC told staffers.

"There are 39 lifts and 4 escalators in use on the Auckland Park premises.  Most of these lifts and escalators were installed as far back as 1972 making them over forty years old. Due to their age parts are extremely difficult to obtain and in some instances they have to be re-manufactured."

"This causes long outage periods and affects the reliability on these lifts and escalators. This is the main cause of our First Citizens having to wait for lifts".

In February 2015 scared SABC staff said that "lifts in the SABC are in a deplorable situation" and that "several of the lifts at the SABC are no longer in working order. SABC personnel often have to wait up to 10 minutes for an available lift. Others climb steps to get where they have to be".

With 'less that's fresh' the technically insolvent SABC wants to increase SABC TV licence fees.

With "less that's fresh" in terms of content and viewers seeing constant repeats, old content and programmes changing timeslots and channels, the technically insolvent South African public broadcaster wants to increase SABC TV licence fees.

Appearing on Wednesday before parliament's committee for public enterprises and communication, the SABC's top executives admitted that it's stale content is leading to audience declines and that several of its biggest content suppliers have stopped giving the SABC shows and episodes because of the broadcaster's failure to pay or to stick to the payment schedule.

Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO, told parliament on Wednesday that the SABC's TV audiences are declining and that "this is largely because of a lack of investment in local content. In our business audience drives revenue and when the audience numbers are low it affects revenue".

He said that the SABC's database has 9.6 million SABC TV licence fee payers but that only a measly 2.2 million people who are still bothering to pay their licence fees, with "455 000 doing it in instalment terms. As you can see the gap is quite huge".

Yolande van Biljon, SABC CFO, told parliament that the South African public broadcaster is "technically insolvent" and that it's ongoing failure to pay local production companies for content "naturally has a significant effect on our local content productions and the creative industry".

"The SABC is technically insolvent," she said. "Cash is depleted. Several of our major content providers have ceased production and they even retain content as a result of us being unable to pay them".

"We rely on these programmes to generate revenue because they attract the eyes and ears that we need. Because we can't pay, we're unable to have the content as fresh. As a result of that, advertising revenue is impacted that affects our financial sustainability."

She said that "service providers that have successfully tendered now no longer want to accept the awards. There's been an increasing demand for upfront payments. With sports rights we're unable to acquire the sports that the South African public is interested in."

Yolande van Biljon said that the SABC is "reducing our investment in content. We are also not investing in marketing as we should. The impact is ultimately that the revenue also reduces".

She explained that SABC viewers "on specific channels see these constant changes in programming and timeslots.A lot of it is as a result of the uncertainty of our financial circumstances. We couldn't invest in a specific programme and go into repeat strategies".

Despite the less fresh content, the SABC however wants viewers to pay more for their SABC TV licence fees.

"We have in the last few months investigated a possible increase in the fee and we have presented it to the department of communications and we are awaiting the outcome of that," Yolande van Biljon said.

She revealed that the SABC on average is supposed to spend R180 million per month on content investment. "We have about R60 million to R80 million for that. So R100 million of that investment cannot take place. I call it we 'preserve the cash' in order to pay salaries or to pay a specific creditor that is under pressure".

By this Friday the SABC will have only R75 million in its bank account, she said. "Effectively we need to be able to issue a notification to our creditors why we are not going into business rescue," she explained. "We are what is defined as 'financially distressed'. In terms of the Companies Act we have to issue these notifications. Or declare liquidation."

As an example of the SABC's delayed capital expenditure she said "We have to replace all the lifts in Auckland Park. That's R160 million. The lifts are 15 years past lifespan. We keep them together by making ad hoc investments and repairs and maintenance".

"On any given day there might be 3 out of 39 working in our buildings in Auckland Park," said Yolande van Biljon.

Jonathan Thekiso, the SABC's HR boss, said that the SABC's bloated personnel number is falling due to a block on hiring new staff. As people are resigning and retiring, the staff count has dropped from 3 200 in February 2019 to 3 083 by June 2019.

Yolande van Biljon said the SABC wants to get back to building up a content inventory instead of making and receiving a programme one day and broadcasting it the next. "We want to build up a little bit of content investment, bring stability, finalise our schedule for a 2-year period [in advance] so that you can give your advertisers comfort in terms of stability".

"The investment they make in our world is also impacted when we move programmes around or move it between SABC channels.

SABC trade unions Bemawu and CWU demand answers and an urgent meeting with SABC board before the end of this week over whether staff will get paid at the end of June.

The two big trade unions representing thousands of SABC staffers are demanding answers and an urgent meeting with the SABC board before the end of this week after shocking revelations by the SABC board chairperson on Sunday and the chief financial officer on Monday that the broke SABC can't guarantee the payment of staff salaries in two weeks time at the end of June.

On Sunday, Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson, warned that the SABC is finally on the verge of collapse with a blackout that could happen any moment.

"I’m not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June," Bongumusa Makhathini said in a report in The Sunday Times.

The SABC that is perilously close to no longer broadcasting hasn't paid for municipal services like electricity at the end of May, choosing to rather pay SABC staff salaries. The SABC now owes the City of Johannesburg more than R13.5 million.

The SABC that is drowning in debt owes the parastatal signal distributor Sentech R317 million and MultiChoice's sports content division SuperSport over R208 million. Beyond that the SABC also owes millions to other content providers like independent South African production companies.

Nothing has so far come of the SABC's plea for a massive R6.8 billion in another government bailout.

On Monday, Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's CFO, warned in an interview with SABC News (DStv 404) that the beleaguered South African public broadcaster's "Day Zero can happen tomorrow" and refused to confirm that SABC staffers will be paid at the end of June.

Yolande van Biljon said that the SABC owes R1.8 billion to hundreds of companies.

On Tuesday Bemawu led by Hannes du Buisson and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) led by Aubrey Tshabalala, in a joint letter demanded an urgent meeting with the SABC board to ensure that SABC staffers will be paid at the end of this month.

Both Bemawu and the CWU demand to know what is happening with the long-delayed government bailout that Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the current minister of communications, promised.

The SABC urgently needs a cash bailout of R3.2 billion to keep public broadcasting services going in South Africa, while Tito Mboweni, South Africa's minister of finance after his budget speech in February revealed that the SABC now needs a massive R6.8 billion in a government bailout.

In their letter they say that organised labour at the SABC are deeply concerned and unhappy about the way in which staffers are being treated by the SABC board.

Bemawu and the Communication Workers Union say they had to hear in the media that the SABC has reached "Day Zero" - when it can no longer pay anything or staff salaries and will therefore see its broadcasting services seize up - and that workers likely won't be paid by the end of June.

SABC's finance boss Yolande van Biljon warns: SABC's 'Day Zero can happen tomorrow', can't confirm that South African public broadcaster's staffers will be paid at end of June, says SABC owes over R1.8 billion to hundreds of companies.

The SABC's "Day Zero can happen tomorrow."

That is the dire and stark warning from the SABC's chief financial officer, Yolande van Biljon, who in an interview on Monday morning with SABC News said that the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster could see its operations seize up at any moment.

So precarious is its cash-flow situation and so beleaguered is the South African public broadcaster's financial situation that its finance boss on Monday couldn't guarantee that SABC staffers would be getting paid at the end of the month and didn't want to make any commitment and say that salaries will be paid.

The SABC that is drowning in debt owes more than R1.8 billion to hundreds of companies and service providers ranging from Sentech and SuperSport to production companies, royalties payable to Samro, and many more.

The South African public broadcaster is finally completely without money and on Sunday Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson in an interview with The Sunday Times warned that the SABC is on the verge of seizing up and that "communication blackout is imminent".

"I’m not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June," Bongumusa Makhathini said according to a report in The Sunday Times.

The SABC has been waiting for months on another government bailout of R3.2 billion while its already precarious financial position kept worseing, pleading with Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the minister of communications, to do something.

Meanwhile political pressure saw the bloated broadcaster forced to abandon its plan of mass retrenchments that was scrapped before the general elections.

In February this year after his budget speech, Tito Mboweni, the minister of finance, revealed that the SABC now actually needs R6.8 billion as a bailout if it's to survive.

On Monday Yolande van Biljon, SABC CFO, told SABC2's Morning Live in an interview that the broadcaster's juggling act to pay SABC staff salaries at the end of every month has "been the case for the last 8, 9 months. It has just been progressively worseing the last few months".

"We have had low-income months due to various reasons and that impacted heavily on our available cash resources and in the process the strain on the cash have just increased tremendously."

"In terms of debt there is over R1 billion that is owed. If you add accruals you come close to R1.8 billion altogether that is due and payable," she explained.

Asked about the R3.2 government bailout she said "we've had not had formal feedback yet. There is lot of support though".

"Again I ask you, will SABC employees be paid at the end of the month?" asked the Morning Live co-host Leanne Manas, who also revealed that some SABC employees, especially some freelancers, continue to not receive payment and that it has been happening as recently as the end of May.

"We're doing our best Leanne to provide for it in our forecasts and ensure that it is the first thing line-item that is executed in about two weeks from now. The moment a SuperSport or a Sentech or one of the other big partners is just unable to further say 'we're happy to carry you for another month' then the salaries will be at risk."

"As I sit here now it is in the forecast, we are planning to pay it as usual, but the times are extremely uncertain. It's really a day-to-day monitoring situation," Yolande van Biljon said.


'All suffering'
Yolande van Biljon explained that about 10 institutions are owed the majority of the R1 billion in SABC debt with the public broadcaster that also owes money to the South African Auditor-General (AG), as well as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

"Then there's literally hundreds of smaller guys if I can put it like that. We do typically try to ensure that they have an allocation because we don't want to put further strain on the general, smaller service providers and suppliers. The pressure is with those big, 6 or 7 institutions that we owe a lot to."

"We need the funding support as soon as possible in my view. I worry. Apart from the salaries you know, there are service providers and suppliers in the bigger circles that work with the SABC which are all suffering as a result of what we have to deal with."


'Day Zero can happen tomorrow'
"I think Day Zero can happen tomorrow. It depends on if one of these big partners are unable to support us financially, or must be forced to switch off our signal and distribution network, or where the maintenance situation impacts one of our critical infrastructure facilities in one of the studios and there's a real black-on-air situation because the equipment couldn't do what it is supposed to do anymore," Yolande van Biljon said.

"The fact that we're managing it and that we keep presenting a front that everything is fine doesn't serve our purpose. But we've got phenomenal people, we've got fantastic support from our partners that ensure that we remain on-air as is required."

"But it takes one small thing at this point in time and the SABC's Day Zero will be that day," she said.

Explaining the impact of a SABC blackout she said that "28 milion people who listen to our radio stations will not have their news, entertainment and education. That's half of the population which will be immediately affected and they lose this news, entertainment and education in their mother tongue".

"I think it's quite a disaster. The television stations the same thing - a little bit less viewers but if you at SABC1, a significant number of viewers. Millions of people in South Africa will suddenly no longer have access to this kind of information, entertainment, education and news. And this is the SABC's mandate."

"Half of the population will be affected and then I'm not even talking about the 5 000 people who work with the SABC whether in a freelance basis or on a permanent basis - obviously those people and their families and the broader circles will be affected."

PLAY WITHOUT PAY. The SABC owes struggling local artists almost R250 million in royalties as the public broadcaster scrapes to pay staff salaries only.

The SABC owes struggling South African artists R250 million in a constantly mounting debt burden that the South African public broadcaster - that is scraping to prioritise the payment of its own staff salaries before anything else - isn't paying, causing an untenable situation for performers struggling to live. 

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the minister of communications, revealed this week in a written reply to the Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament George Michalakis, that the beleaguered South African public broadcaster that is on the brink of financial collapse, owes South African artists almost R250 million for playing and using their music without paying.

Since music rights organisations are not getting paid by the SABC for the use of performers' songs and music which the SABC continues to use on a daily basis, these organisations are unable to pay over royalties to performers for their work and who are suffering because of the lack and drop in income.

The SABC owes a mounting R126 million to the South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) alone. 

The SABC owes the South African Music Performance Rights Organisation R104 million.

Then there is an R8.8 million the SABC owes to the Association of Independent Record Companies and R3.3 million the SABC owes to the Recording Industry of South Africa.

The SABC owes another R6 million to the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association. 

Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's chief financial officer (CFO), told parliament this week that "we owe about R943 million as at the end of February to trade and other payables, so what we are unable to settle really just gets added to the backlog and aggravates the situation as we near the year-end."

"We really rely very heavily on our stakeholders and content providers and other service providers to continue to support us at this point in time."

"In the 11 months as we're reporting here for January we have actively chosen not to spend on certain items - maintenance, travelling, consultants - even our content, in order to ensure that we have sufficient cash to cover our payroll."

Yolande van Biljon told parliament that "our cash-management these days is literally on a day-to-day basis. We prioritise our payroll at the cost of every other service provider, supplier and the investment in content and marketing but we will do everything possible to protect the payroll."

"In February the income was the lowest it has been this whole year but we were able to cover our payroll and we covered really very, very critical service providers only, and that process continues into March."

"So we really just manage around Day Zero. In my opinion, it could really happen any day because it depends on one of our major creditors deciding that they're no longer able to support us," said Yolande van Biljon.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said the government will provide "interim relief" to the SABC to ensure that the ailing public broadcaster is able to pay staff salaries at the end of this month when the SABC reaches factual insolvency.

 The SABC needs R6.8 billion as a government bailout in the form of another government-guaranteed bank loan but hasn't received any cash-injection yet.

Out of cash for content: This is why the SABC is filled with rebroadcasts and why The Bold and the Beautiful is really gone.

With the South African public broadcaster in extreme trouble, its programming schedules are filled with repeats and rebroadcasts of old shows with the SABC that admitted in parliament on Tuesday that it's not just out of cash to pay salaries but also out of cash to pay for content.

Since the beginning of this month The Bold and the Beautiful was abruptly gone from SABC3 with the contract that was terminated.

The SABC is now showing repeats of old content even during prime time on its channels. A repeat of 2017, Taryn & Sharon, is now rebroadcast on weekdays in prime time on SABC3, as well as SABC2’s former telenovela Keeping Score that is getting a re-airing now on SABC3 also in prime time.

The SABC previously at least tried to keep repeats out of prime time.

Seasons of long-running shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race that used to alternate on SABC3 no longer appear on the March or even April schedules. Meanwhile SABC2 is dusting off library series like 2010's The Joey Rasdien Show, back for yet another repeat. 

Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO, warned parliament that a "black-on-air" scenario will happen soon without a government bailout of the beleaguered broadcaster that is on the precipice of financial collapse and will be technically insolvent at the end of this month.

Last month the minister of finance, Tito Mboweni, revealed after his budget speech in parliament that the SABC needs a whopping R6.8 billion in cash as a government bailout to survive.

Madoda Mxakwe, who said that the SABC's cash flow is completely depleted, said the SABC "cannot adhere to all our committed contracts". "We cannot even commission local content production as a result of all of the severe liquidity challenges that we're facing."

"The situation is so bad that several major content providers of key programmes actually refuse to engage with us. Understandably, because we have not been able to pay them in the past couple of months," added Madoda Mxakwe.

"We can't acquire sports rights. Owing to our liquidity challenges we are not able to do it."

"In terms of the significant suppliers that are due and overdue, you are looking at Sentech, we're looking at SuperSport, Samro, as well as other providers of content that we have not been able to pay."


'Black-on-air scenario is a real threat' - SABC CEO
Madoda Mxakwe told parliament that "the SABC cannot guarantee that it will be able to pay its employees’ salaries at the end of March 2019. Should this crisis not be addressed as a matter of urgency, the SABC would be unable to operate and the 'black-on-air' scenario is a real and highly possible threat."

The minister of communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said later on Tuesday that the National Treasury will give some money to the SABC in order to pay staff salaries at the end of March. The amount was not disclosed.

The SABC told parliament that since October 2018 the broadcaster's audience share has been declining, with its revenue that is expected to continue to decline in the 4th quarter of its financial year.

Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's chief financial officer (CFO), told parliament that "our audience share is declining as a result of a combination of factors and we anticipate it to continue."

She added: "Of our television stations, SABC1 remains the top-performing station but we're also too heavily reliant on it. It is outperforming the prior year revenue but it is the targets for this year which are not being met for all three TV channels."

Yolande van Biljon said: "We have incidents almost once a month where either there's a fire or a roof caves in as a result of the severe storms we've been having in Johannesburg. All of it are symptoms of our inability to maintain our infrastructure."

'BLACK-ON-AIR' DANGER: SABC boss Madoda Mxakwe tells parliament the crumbling South African public broadcaster will be bankrupt by 31 March 2019 as audience share continues to fall: 'Our cashflow is depleted'.

Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO, on Tuesday told parliament that the financially gutted and struggling South African Broadcasting Corporation will be factually insolvent by 31 March 2019 as audience share continues to fall, saying: 'Our cashflow is depleted'.

The South African public broadcaster is on the edge of financial collapse and has already been described by South Africa's Auditor-General (AG) as "commercially insolvent".

The SABC told parliament it's heading for another R568 million loss for the financial year - R281 million more than anticipated - that it can no longer guarantee that it will be able to pay SABC staff salaries at the end of March, and that a "black-on-air" scenario will happen soon without a government bailout.

Last month the minister of finance, Tito Mboweni, revealed after his budget speech in parliament that the SABC needs a whopping R6.8 billion in cash as a government bailout to survive.

On Tuesday Madoda Mxakwe told parliament's portfolio committee on communications that by the end of this month the SABC will no longer be able to pay anybody as its liabilities will exceed its total assets when the broadcaster enters technical insolvency.

A plan to retrench thousands of SABC workers from the overstaffed and bloated public broadcaster where wages form the biggest expense by far was scuppered since 8 May 2019 is election day in South African and political parties don't want to see workers being fired in an election year.

"The severe liquidity challenges we are facing threaten our status as a going concern. Our cashflow is depleted. We cannot honour payments to service providers. We cannot adhere to all our committed contracts," said Madoda Mxakwe.

"We cannot even commission local content production as a result of all of the severe liquidity challenges that we're facing".

"The situation is so bad that several major content providers of key programmes they actually refuse to engage with us. Understandably, because we have not been able to pay them in the past couple of months," said Madoda Mxakwe.

"We can't acquire sports rights. Owing to our liquidity challenges we are not able to do it."

"In terms of the significant suppliers that are due and overdue, you are looking at Sentech, we're looking at SuperSport, Samro, as well as other providers of content that we have not been able to pay."

"The SABC cannot guarantee that it will be able to pay its employees' salaries at the end of March 2019. Should this crisis not be addressed as a matter of urgency, the SABC would be unable to operate and the 'black-on-air' scenario is a real and highly possible threat," said Madoda Mxakwe.

The SABC told parliament that since October 2018 the broadcaster's audience share has been declining, with its revenue that is expected to continue to decline in the 4th quarter of its financial year.

Madoda Mxakwe told parliament that the SABC "is managing a lot of disciplinary cases emanating from the forensic reports that we continue to get. On any given day I get anything from 2 to 3 of these and they depict the kind of malfeasance we still see in the organisation".

Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's chief financial officer (CFO) told parliament that since January 2019 the SABC's actual revenue for the financial year was down 12% below the target at R5.4 billion.

"Our audience share is declining as a result of a combination of factors and we anticipate it to continue."

"Of our television stations, SABC1 remains the top-performing station but we're also too heavily reliant on it. It is outperforming the prior year revenue but it is the targets for this year which are not being met for all three TV channels," said Yolande van Biljon.

"We have incidents almost once a month where either there's a fire or a roof caves in as a result of the severe storms we've been having in Johannesburg. All of it are symptoms of our inability to maintain our infrastructure."

The SABC has repeatedly asked the minister of communications, with Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams currently the 11th minister of communications in 11 years, for a multi-billion rand bailout, similar to the government-guaranteed loan the public broadcaster received in 2011 during its previous financial implosion.

Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams on Tuesday said that the National Treasury had agreed to grant the SABC interim relief in terms of money. The amount of money wasn't disclosed.

SABC finance boss slams rumours staffers won't get paid; admits 'very little trust and no faith certainly' inside broadcaster but implores staffers to give management a chance.

The SABC's finance boss Yolande van Biljon slammed rumours that staffers won't be paid by November but admitted about possible looming job cuts at the embattled South African public broadcaster that there's very little trust and no faith inside SABC corridors.

In an interview on Thursday on SABC News (DStv 404) Yolande van Biljon, the SABC's chief financial officer (CFO) that said the SABC's costs that are "bloated" said that "as a result of the history certainly there's very little trust and no faith certainly. But I do want to emplore our employees and speak to the public of South Africa - just give us a chance".

It's uncertain times. We're all uncertain. As I sit here I don't know where it's going to end as well," she said.

SABC News anchor Palesa Chubisi said rumours circulating inside the SABC that the 3 478 staffers won't get paid by the end of November since the cash-strapped broadcaster will then be out of money without serious intervention "has created a panic in the corridors of the SABC with the news going around that the SABC will not be able to pay its salaries at the end of November".

"My experience with the SABC for the past 12 years that I've been here is that there's never smoke without fire," Palesa Chubisi said.

It comes after the SABC chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini earlier this week when asked if the SABC will be able to pay staff salaries, said "if we don't get financial help, come November we are going to struggle".

Yolande van Biljon slammed the false rumours, saying "maybe these people spreading rumours know something I don't. To execute the payroll is the very first priority when it comes to payment priorities".

"So even if the funds are significantly constrained, if we need to cut that's definitely not the place where we take funds from."

She said "no, the rumours are certainly not true".

The bloated SABC's ballooning wage bill amounts to R3.1 billion, one of its biggest expenses, while the SABC as a broadcaster only spends R1.7 billion on content. The SABC is losing between R80 million and R90 million per month.

About the SABC's dwindling audiences and lack of enticing content, Yolande van Biljon said it's a "catch 22-situation".

"Because of the financial constraints we're unable to procure the kind of content that the audience requires because the audiences then migrate to where it is whether other platforms, digital or just don't watch the SABC anymore. You don't attract advertising revenue as well."

"So it's really a vicious circle and we need to start investing in our content."

About the less than a third of South African TV households who still bother to pay SABC TV Licences she said "if you don't have content that attracts people, then it doesn't motive them to pay".

SABC at death's door as public broadcaster's inability to pay producers is 'the worst it has ever been' - report.

The embattled South African public broadcaster is at death's door and once again hovering on the verge of collapse, owing over R90 million to independent local production companies it can't pay and R100 million in total to over 64 companies, the City Press newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the report's sources the SABC's inability to pay producers supplying content to the SABC the situation is "the worst it's ever been".

It follows after the struggling SABC in the week literally told producers in a letter sent on 30 July, literally a day before they were supposed to be paid, that the SABC once again - as happened in mid-2017 - is out of cash and can't pay them.

While the SABC told producers that the broadcaster is scrambling to try and find money to pay them in a new payment plan, nobody knows where the broadcaster's new CEO, Madoda Mxakwe and chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon will be able to find the money in two week's time to settle millions of rand in overdue payments to producers.

Producers meanwhile have sent the SABC over the last few months letters of demand and notices breach of contract for not paying production companies what they're owed, on time, while the bloated SABC sitting with an oversized staff, are once again busy with salary hike negotiations with unions.

Earlier in the week, SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the SABC won't be talking about the SABC's crisis and failure to pay producers in public, although the issue is in the public eye and being reported on.

According to the City Press report, sources blame the destruction on the the famously matricless and now-fired former chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

Hlaudi Motsoeneng until he was fired in 2017 wreaked on the SABC during his chaotic tenure during a period marked by financial and fiscal chaos, mismanagement and corruption, SABC News censorship, a litany of firings in the newsroom and content divisions, SABC board instability and an overall lack of governance at the broadcaster.

Advertising income of the SABC's radio stations and TV channels, especially the struggling SABC3 have plummeted, because of a fall in listenership and viewership as well as lower than usual listenership growth, meaning less advertising revenue for the broadcaster since ad rates are pegged to ratings.

The disastrous SABC News (DStv 404) and SABC Encore (DStv 156) the two channels the SABC produce for MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform exclusively using public broadcaster resources and content, have also deteriorated further, with the contract that will be running out at the end of August and that hasn't yet been renewed, that is up for possible renewal.

SABC appoints Madoda Mxakwe as new CEO, Yolande van Biljon as CFO.

The SABC has appointed Madoda Mxakwe as new CEO – the beleaguered South African public broadcaster's first permanent new CEO in over two and a half years.

Madoda Mxakwe that lacks broadcasting management experience, worked for Nestlé in Switzerland as well as in East and Southern Africa as country head, and takes over the gargantuan task of trying to rightsize the crisis-hit public broadcaster plagued by mismanagement and corruption, ballooning debt and the dented credibility of its news service after censorship orders that were nullified by the country’s broadcasting regulator in March 2017.

The SABC, waiting on yet another possible government bailout, limped along with acting CEOs the past two years since Frans Matlala left in November 2015, with several other top executive positions that have also been left vacant. 

Chris Maroleng was appointed as COO from February 2018, Phathiswa Magopeni was appointed as the new head of news and current affairs from March, and the SABC announced that the chartered accountant Yolande van Biljon has been appointed as its permanent chief financial officer (CFO) effective immediately.

Madoda Mxakwe will take over the reigns as SABC CEO from 1 July. 

He has a masters degree in global political economy from Sussex University in the UK and executive leadership development certificates from the London Business School and a PGD in business administration from the Gordon Institute of Business School (GIBS).

Bongumusa Mahkathini, SABC board chairperson, says Madoda Mxakwe and Yolande van Biljon’s appointments "affirm our commitment to attract and retain the best skills to take the SABC to greater heights, particularly to address the evolving broadcasting environment enabled by technology and the changing media consumer patterns".

He said the SABC board believes the two appointments "will strengthen the organization's position as a credible and reliable public service content provider. As part of the continuous efforts to bring stabiliy, the SABC is in the process of finalising other group executive appointments in order to achieve sound governance in allthe SABC’s business units".

The SABC has had 11 CEOs since 2009, including those who were appointed in an acting capacity, with acting CEO James Aguma who was followed by Nomsa Philiso, before the appointment of Madoda Mxakwe.