Carrim must attest to validity of SABC/MultiChoice deal
29 September 2013
Communications Minister Yunus Carrim and the Chairperson of the former Interim South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board, Ms Ellen Tshabalala must come before Parliament to explain why the deal for 24-hour SABC-TV channels on the MultiChoice platform contradicts government's policy on digital terrestrial television (DTT).
The Sunday Times today reveals that the deal - signed on 3 July 2013 by SABC's Acting Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Acting Chief Financial Officer Christian Olivier and MultiChoice's CEO: Pay TV Platfortms Eben Greyling - prohibits the public broadcaster from making any of its channels available on any platform that uses access controls (see Business Times report).
We also need to know why a deal of this magnitude was not signed by the SABC's Group Chief Operating Officer Ms Lulama Mokhobo, and whether the terms of the deal had interim board approval before it was signed.
I understand that these conditions for the 24-hour news and entertainment channels were not put before the previous SABC board. We need to know how thoroughly the interim board understood the far-reaching consequences of this agreement and how thoroughly they interrogated the business case.
This deal severely jeopardises the government's set-top box (STB) local manufacturing policy which was designed to boost the local electronics industry and, supposedly, create thousands of jobs.
Minister Carrim needs to explain whether the SABC had government approval to sign this deal that contradicts government's years-long insistence that STBs have access control systems to, in the main, grow and protect the local electronics manufacturing industry.
About 36 companies submitted responses last September to the Department of Communications' request for proposals for the manufacturing of STBs with access control systems. The announcement of the successful manufacturers was put on hold earlier this year when former minister Dina Pule announced that the DTT policy was being reviewed. There has been no known progress on this revision.
I have been told by a number of companies that submitted STB manufacturing proposals that they have had no invitation to meet Minister Carrim to discuss the crisis, but they have received a request from the Department of Communications to ‘extend our tender price until 14 October 2013'.
This is two weeks away and there has been no indication whether the specifications on the original request for proposals have changed, but the foreign exchange rate has so any costings in the year-old proposals will be invalid, even if the access control system remains in the specifications.
The SABC cannot continue to disregard policies and contractually bind the broadcaster into a corner. Action and answers are required to put a stop to the turmoil at the public's broadcaster.
Statement issued by Marian Shinn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, September 29 2013
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