Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) will on Friday conduct an oversight visit at the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) head office in Auckland Park, Johannesburg to get first-hand information on the financial affairs of the organisation.
The oversight watchdog committee says the main objective of the on-site inspection at the SABC is to establish the root causes of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
In the video below, SABC management appeared before SCOPA:
The committee says there are glaring discrepancies in the information provided by the SABC management and the information contained in the company’s annual financial statement.
‘Looming retrenchments at SABC cannot be avoided’
Meanwhile, SABC Group Executive for News and Current Affairs Phathiswa Magopeni earlier this week said the looming retrenchments at the public broadcaster cannot be avoided as the wage bill has to be reduced.
This week, 13 employees who are believed to have been irregularly appointed were dismissed.
The public broadcaster says they were appointed without following proper processes when former Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng was at the helm of the organisation.
The SABC is currently at loggerheads with workers’ representatives over its plans to retrench around 600 permanent staff members.
The broadcaster says according to the Labour Relations Act, it is now at liberty to unilaterally implement the contemplated retrenchments after failed talks facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA).
