Communications Minister Mondli Gungubele says the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) cannot be found wanting during an election.
He briefed Parliament’s Communications and Digital Technologies portfolio Committee, where he responded to the impasse between the SABC and Sentech.
Gungubele says the public broadcaster has taken signal distributor to the Competitions Tribunal over the high tariffs.
He says the SABC pays Sentech around R20 million and that its debt to Sentech is still high.
Gungubele says, “We are also engaging Treasury with regards to these matters to check if nothing can be done as far as this matter is concerned. The DG (Director-General) can speak better about that because she is the one that can speak better on a technical level, but I have raised this on a political level.”
“We hope there will be an understanding that we cannot have an SABC that will be found wanting during an election. So, against that background, there are those issues, but I am relieved having spoken to the current management at the SABC in as far as their medium and long-term revenue intentions are concerned. We hope they will deliver in line with those.”
The Committee will debate the SABC Bill this week.
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