“Something needs to be done to ensure that the present board is seen to be legitimate. The board then needs to hold management to account,” Skinner says. “The lack of legitimacy of the board is making it difficult for them to be decisive around the financial crisis.
“The financial controls need to be substantially strengthened. No funding from Treasury can be given until that is sorted out. And this needs to be sorted urgently because producers need to be paid.”
Media reports imply that the public broadcaster is nearly insolvent and struggling to pay millions of rands it owes to TV production houses responsible for making many of its popular dramas and soapies.
Many wonder why the public broadcaster's crises have dragged so long until the damage has been seriously done. Skinner said: “I think the answer is that the oversight structures were not doing their job. Also, the leadership crisis at the SABC meant that the board was not holding management properly to account.”
Some are now calling for Government to step in and bail the SABC out as it has done in the past for other state-controlled corporations such as South African Airways (SAA). “Yes, the government has no choice but to intervene.
“But of course, conditions need to be put in place including the fact that the SABC's financial systems need to be substantially strengthened before any money is released,” Skinner pointed out.
“In the more medium term, Government needs to look at a different funding model for the SABC. The present funding model is heavily reliant on advertising, which for a number of reasons, is a problem including the fact that the SABC has a very large and complex language and local content mandate.
“The new minister [of communications] needs to make sure that he immediately embarks on a broadcasting policy review process. From this process he will then need to draft a new SABC legislation,” she concluded.
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