The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has revealed that the passing of the SABC Bill by Parliament will not happen under the sixth administration as Parliament will not have gotten to it before the upcoming national elections.
The department says the Bill also seeks to address the SABC’s outdated funding model which has resulted in the organisation’s commercial mandate, funding the public mandate.
Communications and Digital Technologies Deputy Minister Philly Mapulane was responding to questions at a media briefing in Pretoria.
“Parliament has almost risen, that Bill is not going to be processed in the current Parliament. But there are couple of measures that are being implemented by the board to be able to turnaround the fortunes of the SABC.”
“But we hope that in the next Parliament, this Bill will be processed because it’s crucial that we have a new legislation and to also to comply with the previous court orders. One of the fundamental reforms that we seek to do through this Bill is to separate the commercial and the public service mandate. So that the public service mandate of the SABC can be properly funded by the fiscus,” adds Mapulane.
Meanwhile, SABC GCEO Nomsa Chabeli says a strategy has been put in place to continue broadcasting amid the R950-million owed to signal distributor Sentech.
Key priorities for SABC GCEO Nomsa Chabeli:
