The SABC has decided that in order to cut costs it will no longer be commissioning any new local content. The Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC) warns that the SABC's decision not to commission any new local content will effectively kill the local television industry. It said the industry would lose over R500 million in income over cancelled or deferred productions and would result in production costs increasing and 80 000 crew and cast losing their jobs.

The DA welcomes the public broadcaster's attempts at cost-cutting. However it should be remembered that the SABC's almost R1bn losses are largely as result of internal financial mismanagement and mass fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the previous board.

An example of worrying trends at the SABC include the fact that despite the corporation's dismal performance and while being on paid suspension for most of the year, the three-times-suspended CEO, Dali Mpofu received a R2.1-million bonus during 2008, 47.3% higher than the previous years' R1.4-million. Mpofu's salary was also increased by 19.7 percent to R4.5-million. He was also paid out more than R6.5m for the remainder of this contract after being refused re-instatement.

Another disconcerting fact is that the SABC's biggest debtor is national and provincial government which owes the SABC more than R300m in advertising fees for airtime sales, outdoor broadcast ventures on both television and radio. The SABC cannot punish the local TV industry for its financial crisis but should rather not have paid out bonuses to incompetent staff and collected monies owed by its debtors, the biggest of which is government.

Together with failures of Eskom, SAA and other public enterprises, the SABC's meltdown is indicative of government's failure to run its corporations effectively. Non-privatised entities are prone to corruption as decision-making is made for political and personal gain, rather than economic ones as has been evident with the SABC. The SABC's failure is not as a result of the recession but the fact that it is run politicians many of whom have no real knowledge and expertise in the sector. The SABC's competition, etv, has been able to make profit out of broadcasting without benefiting from license fees and having to face the same regulations as SABC regarding local content and languages. There is not reason why the SABC can't do the same.

Statement issued by Niekie van den Berg, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications, August 13 2009

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