The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) says it may retrench 981 permanent employees and not renew the contracts of 1200 freelancers. The public broadcaster has issued a notice to all its employees informing them of its intention to embark on retrenchments as a cost-saving measure.
Earlier this month, the process was halted following the joint consensus seeking meeting with organised labour. It is envisaged that the restructuring will affect all employees at all levels in the SABC.
The SABC says this exercise would result in a saving of approximately R440 million per annum.
“We have a wage bill currently that’s sitting at R3.1 billion on revenue of R7.2 billion. The revenue is almost half the revenue that the SABC is generating right now. So I don’t think there’s any organisation that wants to go through section 189. The organisation is now at a point where it’s left with no other alternative but to start the consultation process with organised labour,” says SABC Group Executive for Human Resource, Jonathan Thekiso.
The public broadcaster will also approach the Labour Court in Johannesburg in an effort to get back in excess of R60 million lost as a result of irregular appointments and promotions. The former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s 2014 report titled, “When Governance and Ethics Fail”, declared the appointments and promotions invalid. The SABC says it has been in the process of verifying whether, over the period of April 2015 to end of March 2017, there were other possible irregular appointments, promotions and salary increases.
Thekiso says the public broadcaster desperately needs to get back its financial sustainability: “We are looking to draw back in excess of 60 million rand which is as a result of those irregular appointments, increases and promotions. So the total amount that we are looking at right now is 60 million.”
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