The African National Congress (ANC) says it will not allow retrenchments to go ahead at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
The ruling party was reacting to the Public Broadcaster’s announcement to be soon embarking on a retrenchment process due to its financial woes.
The public broadcaster has announced it will be retrenching staff members and the unions say this might happen by November.
ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule made the statement whilst delivering the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela memorial lecture in Polokwane last night.
“We must support the workers of SABC. The ANC has taken a decision and I’m talking on behalf of the President that we must not allow any retrenchments even in our SOE’s same with SABC – we should not allow people to be retrenched.”
The public broadcaster has been going through a financial crisis in the last few years and the new team of executive managers has now announced that it will be approaching unions to start with the consultation process.
SABC currently has a R1.3 billion debt bill. CEO Madoda Mxakwe says in well functioning organisations the wage bill consumes 30% of revenue.
“In terms of best practice for organisations that are functioning healthy are financially viable is the ratio of revenue to expenditure when it comes to salary bill is at about 30%, and as the SABC we are standing at about 50% you may know that we closed last year for example at R7.3 billion and R3.1 billion of that was attributable to the wage bill.”
The Congress of the People (COPE) has condemned SABC management for the proposed retrenchments of SABC employees. It says it will take the issue to Parliament in order to find a solution without people losing jobs.
Dennis Bloem says, ” We will do everything in our power to stop that retrenchments. It is unacceptable that management are not looking at themselves but are looking at the foot soldiers. It is better for the management to cut their bloated structure and leave the workers alone.”
The SABC has about 4 000 employees. The organisation will now approach unions and start a consultation process that will go on for 60 days or more. Thereafter it will be more clear on how many people will lose their jobs.
