SABC financial crisis could cause imminent blackout
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 17 June 2019

Debt ridden South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is in need of ZAR 3.2 billion (US$220 million) in government guarantees to keep it afloat, according to local reports.

The public broadcaster owes large sums to the municipality of Johannesburg,signal distributor Sentech and the pay-TV operator MultiChoice for sports content, reports The Sunday Times.

“We have also not maintained any of our infrastructure and a communications blackout is imminent,” SABC chairman Bongumusa Makhathini told the newspaper.

The broadcaster may be unable to pay employee salaries this month, but its chairman added it had anticipated it would reach “day zero” in March rather than than June.

The board is undergoing a clean up operation, with the SABC subject to the country’s Special Investigative Unit and an internal audit, said Makhathini. The SABC’s chief auditing executive, Thami Zikode, recently survived an alleged assassination.

The SABC is one of a number of state-owned companies struggling under immense debt, along with cash strapped power utility Eskom and South African Airways.

Their financial woes accompany accusations of looting and mismanagement of government businesses under President Jacob Zuma: allegations which Zuma refutes.