Failure in its back-up power system knocked multiple SABC radio stations off air after Eskom loadshedding on Thursday night.

by Thinus Ferreira

A failure in the SABC's back-up power system and a power surge knocked multiple radio stations of the South African public broadcaster off the air for over an hour on Thursday night.

Thursday night's SABC radio stations blackout occured when Eskom loadshedding kicked in in Johannesburg, after which the SABC's back-up power system failed to work properly.

Presenters, crew and listeners of several SABC radio stations were shocked and confused on Thursday night over the unexplained SABC radio broadcast blackout that led to dead air on Metro FM, 5FM, Radio 2000, SAfm, RSG and the SABC's Channel Africa radio station.

In response to a media enquiry, Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson, told TVwithThinus on Friday that "The SABC can confirm that at 20:20 last night, there was a disruption of broadcast services to our Johannesburg-based radio stations, due to a surge of our back up power systems caused by load shedding".

"The services were restored at approximately 21:30. The affected radio stations included Metro FM, 5FM, Radio 2000, SAfm and RSG, as well as Channel Africa. The SABC apologises for any inconvenience this may have caused."

eNCA explains Monday night's blue screen blackout and signal loss on DStv: Power failure caused a switch to back-up generators that failed.

DStv subscribers were left perplexed without any explanation when eNCA (DStv 403) experienced when the South African TV news channel had a blue screen blackout on Monday night during prime time with eNCA telling TVwithThinus that it was caused by a power outage and back-up generators that failed.

Viewers watching eNCA on Monday night during prime time suddenly saw eNCA go off air during Night Line with Vuyo Mvoko with a blue screen simply displaying a stock MultiChoice message saying "Sorry about the interruption to your viewing. Our teams will get you back to your favourite show as soon as we can. Thanks for understanding."

eNCA remained off air for close to an hour as viewers tuned out of the dead-on-air channel.

eNCA in response to a media enquiry about the abrupt signal loss blames a power outage that resulted in back-up generators at its Hyde Park headquarters in Johannesburg to kick in but which then failed and shut down.

"The area of Dunkeld West experienced a power outage late on Monday night. Generators at our studios kicked in but later malfunctioned," says eNCA.

"Within less than an hour, we diverted to recorded programming from our Cape Town studios."

"eNCA's technical teams worked throughout the night and brought the channel back on-air for normal programming at 6am on Tuesday."

NEWS ALERT. 'Communication blackout is imminent'. SABC issues dire warning of broadcast failure as it's unable to pay staff at the end of the month, didn't pay electricity and owes hundreds of millions to service and content providers.

NEWS ALERT - The South African public broadcaster that is finally completely without money on Sunday warned that it's on the verge of a total shutdown and that a "communication blackout is imminent" with the SABC that doesn't have money left to pay staffers at the end of June, is no longer able to pay for electricity and owes hundreds of millions to service and content providers ranging from Sentech to SuperSport.

While Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, South Africa's minister of communications, has been jetsetting to Japan last week and after having had months to help the SABC out of its precarious situation, she had failed to solve the massive financial crisis of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Bongumusa Makhathini, SABC chairperson, on Sunday 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 says according to a report in The Sunday Times.

"We have also not maintained any of our infrastructure and a communication blackout is imminent".

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 is meeting with the Coty of Johannesburg again on Wednesday.

The SABC 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.

"We never had a blackout before, but if the funding doesn't come soon the possibility of a blackout is imminent," Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO said a month ago.

The SABC could either experience a blackout when it's electricity supply is cut off, content is simply no longer being received, or if SABC staffers down tools, go on strike or simply become no-shows when the SABC fails to pay them at the end of the month.

The SABC planned and started a process of mass retrenchment but buckled under political pressure before the general elections and was forced to abandon the process of firing up to 981 permanent staffers and 1 200 freelancers at the bloated public broadcaster.

SABC3 on-air broadcast blackout on Easter Sunday afternoon goes unexplained by the public broadcaster.

The South African public broadcaster's SABC3 channel suffered an unexplained on-air blackout on Easter Sunday.

The abrupt on-air outage that lasted for about 15 minutes on Sunday afternoon, interrupted a rebroadcast of the magazine show, Top Billing, produced by Tswelopele Productions.

There's been no explanation or apology from the SABC, and nothing from SABC3 on the channel's communication on social media.

Viewers complained and wondered what was going on, but got no response from the SABC or SABC3.

"SABC3, is it only my TV or you're down?" asked Stephen Lekoba on Twitter.

"SABC3 currently dead air. Black screen. Should SABC remain open for business or shut its doors?" asked Neil Stoffberg. "They are insolvent."

"This SABC3 broadcast blackout couldn't have come at a really bad time," said Tinock. "More than 10 minutes of Top Billing that I've missed out on. I'm so frustrated".

This @SABC3 broadcast blackout couldnt've come at a really bad time 😡😠😡😠😤

More than 10mins of @SABC3Topbilling that I've missed out on. I'm so frustrated

— Tinock (@Tinockmax) April 21, 2019

On SABC3's Facebook page Ne Lokuwe asked, "SABC what's wrong??" but got no response or reply.

Neither did anybody else.

"What's going on?" asked Olwethu Yamba. "Was watching Top Billing and y'all just went blank."

"What's going on?" asked Megan Adderly. "Blue screen ..."

"The next minute there's Top Billing, the next minute there's no Top Billing. Nxa!!!" said Joules Winnfield.

Those SABC blackouts when all SABC TV channels and radio stations went dead? New SABC CEO Frans Matlala promises it won't happen again.

Remember those shocking SABC blackouts in October 2014 when the SABC abruptly went dark and lost all its TV channels and all SABC radio stations due to equipment failure and even the back-up system broke?

The SABC's new CEO Frans Matlala told parliament on Tuesday that it won't happen again.

"I'd like to give comfort that the SABC has since put in place measures to ensure that the power outages that disrupted these on-air services at the beginning of October 2014 have, the measures have been put in place," said Frans Matlala.

"We can provide some assurance that the problem will not re-occur," said Frans Matlala.

"We've since put additional measures that include a UPS bridging system that will ensure that the final control centre and the master control centre of the SABC will transmit eventually to Sentech and at all times will have power," said Frans Matlala.