South Africa News

Communications minister vows SABC will get bailout soon

Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has promised that the SABC could get a bailout as early as next week.

This comes after her discussions with Finance Minister Tito Mboweni on Friday on a rescue package for the public broadcaster.
The SABC is requiring a total bailout of R6.8 billion but needs R3.5bn immediately to be able to stay afloat until September.

Ndabeni-Abrahams said Mboweni had committed to helping the broadcaster.

In his pre-budget speech in February, Mboweni told the media that the SABC would need R6.8bn to continue functioning.

However, he said, the government was taking a strong stance against entities which needed bailouts and would place chief reorganisation officers in those it was giving money to.

This is the same process to be followed at Eskom after it was given a cash injection of R23bn a year over the next 10 years to ease its financial crisis.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has just appointed eight new members of the SABC board to meet the requirement of 12 non-executive directors following mass resignations which left it without a quorum.

The new board, chaired by Bongumusa Makhathini, will have to stabilise the SABC and present its plans to the new portfolio committee on communications after MPs have been sworn-in next week and appointed a committee chairperson.

Mboweni said the chief reorganisation officers would follow the money in SOEs and ensure it was used properly.

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Source: IOL