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Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams called an urgent meeting of the SABC board on Tuesday night, following a heated staff meeting on proposed cuts at the loss-making state broadcaster.
Ndabeni-Abrahams, along with Deputy Minister Pinky Kekana and other senior department officials, met with the SABC board and executive leadership to “render an account to the minister on the merits of continuing the downsizing process.”
Her office said the minister “took the opportunity to implore the SABC board to consider all possible options, with the aim of preserving jobs.”
“This meeting also gave the minister the opportunity to hear from all board members on the proposed cuts at SABC, and also consider alternative voices from board members on the issue.”
Section 189 notices to newsroom staff have been temporarily withdrawn.
Plans to eliminate 400 jobs
This comes as SABC news employees at the head office in Auckland Park on Tuesday embarked on a slow march, with some reportedly declining to go on the air when a heated meeting broke out. This followed an announcement of 400 planned job cuts, although staff said there were about 170 openings for which employees could apply.
The issuer on Tuesday reported a net loss of R511m for the year ended March 31 and a decrease in revenue from R6.4bn the previous year to R5.7bn.
SABC has a workforce of almost 3,000 employees. Earlier this year, he predicted that he might have to lay off 600 jobs to survive. Your salary bill represents more than half of your income and 45% of your expenses.
South Africa’s National Publishers Forum (Sanef) said it was concerned about instability at SABC after the announcement of impending staff cuts.
In addition to the job cuts, the SABC also declared that it would freeze wage increases for the next three years, the forum noted.
‘Don’t compromise news delivery’
“Sanef calls on SABC leaders to continue to fulfill their public mandate by ensuring that their budget cuts do not reduce a number of critical services, including their African language and regional programming. We call on SABC to keep an eye on central news and current positions and not compromise your basic public news broadcast mandate.
“Since President Cyril Ramaphosa declared the coronavirus pandemic a national disaster on March 23, 2020, more than 700 jobs have been lost in the media industry. In the first two months of the shutdown we saw the closure of two magazine publishers and 80 fine print publications operating nationwide Sanef notes with deep concern that in many newsrooms across the country, journalists are simply not being replaced, resulting in decreased capacity to cover the length and breadth of the country. “
The publishers said that with the prevailing tough economic conditions, advertising revenue has fallen dramatically and most of the digital advertising revenue leaves the shores of the country to Facebook and Google.
“It is not just the Covid-19 crisis that has decimated the media sector. In the past three years, dozens of journalists lost their jobs due to layoffs, diminishing the diversity of voices in South Africa.
“We call on media owners to think creatively and responsibly in implementing new sustainable business models based on the integrity and trust that our readers, viewers and listeners place in us to tell the stories. stories of the country without fear or favoritism “.
The National Union of Education, Health and Allied Workers (Nehawu) said it is “vehemently opposed to the looming staff cuts at SABC.”
‘Fight against the bloodbath of work’
“We believe that the state broadcaster should retain these workers so that they can fulfill their mandate to ensure that they provide news to the majority of our people who depend on the SABC for access to information. The reduction of jobs will collapse the state broadcaster, which will result in decreased news quality. “
“Nehawu calls on all its members, workers and society in general to unite to fight against the labor bloodbath that takes place in all sectors of the economy, including the public sector.
“We call on employers to consider different options to save jobs and that layoffs should be the last resort. We will not stand by as workers are sacrificed for profit, and we will fight valiantly for the job security of all workers in all sectors of the economy, “the union said.
SABC management will appear before parliament’s communications portfolio committee on Wednesday.
The communication minister’s statement said that this would allow them to “account for the process of reducing personnel and the contingencies they have to mitigate the current conflict with employees and unions.”
“I would like to ask the employees of the public broadcaster to exercise restraint and patience during this period of intervention by the department and parliament,” said Ndabeni-Abrahams.
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