The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) says it is ready for the upcoming Local Government Elections, but warns that additional funding will be critical to its final preparations.
The public broadcaster told Parliament’s Communications and Digital Technologies Portfolio Committee on Tuesday that it needs additional funding to scale up its election coverage and fulfil its public service mandate.
Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) Nomsa Chabeli says funding decisions will directly affect the broadcaster’s operations and deployment, with final readiness dependent on the resources that can still be secured.
“As we have previously spoken about how we are at risk when it comes to our resilience. Because our tech has reached and passed end of life and, therefore, we need to really guard against our level of redundancy and with resilience that we have to build into our operations. The uncertainty now is whether we really are able to receive the funding on time.”
The SABC is appearing before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies to update it on its readiness to cover Local Government Elections.
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PEBs
Meanwhile, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) says the SABC is required by its regulations to air Party Election Broadcasts (PEBs) as prescribed.
ICASA says the public broadcaster is not exempt from broadcasting election-related information on political parties, unlike private broadcasters.
ICASA’s Councillor Ntombiza Sithole says the entity is responsible for allocating broadcast times for the PEBs.
“The SABC has an obligation to transmit the PEBs, while community radio stations and commercial broadcasters can choose whether they want to broadcast the PEBs and PAs. On the other side, when it comes to political advertisements, all broadcasters can choose whether they want to broadcast them. ICASA can then determine the duration and sequencing of the PEBs.”
