Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has approved the South African Broadcasting Corporation's application for a government guaranteed bailout of R1.4 billion. Treasury says the amount will be released in tranches with R1 billion to be made available immediately.

Communications Minister, Siphiwe Nyanda, has welcomed the decision saying it will help stabilise the public broadcaster. Communications Ministry spokesperson, Tiyani Rikhotso said: “The SABC requested for some funding from government to basically address the current situation that the public broadcaster is faced with financially.”

Rikhotso added: “Minister Nyanda hopes that the financial injection by government will be utilized properly and to settle urgent outstanding financial obligations.”

The release of the remaining R473m will be subject to the development of a detailed project plan by the Public Broadcaster committing itself to explicit revenue targets and cost cutting measures to enable effective oversight and monitoring of projections by government. These undertakings will be included in the Shareholder Agreement between Nyanda and the SABC board. 

Nyanda also thanked Gordhan and staff who worked on the project both at National Treasury and the Ministry of Communications. He also took the opportunity to acknowledge and express his gratitude to the Interim Board led by Irene Charnely for working tirelessly to get to this stage. He said “the interim board, working together with the Ministerial Task Team, has done tremendous work under trying circumstances and tight deadlines to deliver on this major milestone." 

Nyanda also believes that this intervention by government will go a long way towards stabilising the SABC after a very tumultuous period marked by anxiety and uncertainty among staff in particular and the public in general. He added that the SABC is a national asset that needs to be guarded with jealousy by those put in charge of looking after it on behalf of all South Africans. Nyanda further added that he hopes the financial injection will help the SABC to meet its urgent needs such as payment of outstanding debts and other matters of priority.