SABC Annual Report

Meeting report

COMMUNICATIONS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
12 November 2003
SABC ANNUAL REPORT

Chairperson:

SABC Presentation

SUMMARY
The SABC presented its challenges and achievements and future plans. Discussion topics included the retention of skills and talent in the SABC, timeframes and budget for launching of regional stations, SABC bureaus in Africa, subtitles and signing for the hearing impaired, number of people with disabilities employed by SABC, signal coverage in rural areas, the BOP TV loan, SABC's programme contribution to the continent and to nation building, Afrikaans broadcasts, payment of licence fees and election broadcasting.

MINUTES
In welcoming the SABC delegation, the Chair noted that this was the last briefing with the current board. The new board would be announced on Friday.

SABC Presentation (see document)
The Chairperson, Dr Vincent Maphai, introduced the annual report. He gave an overview of the current term and he responded to the issues that had arisen from the June 2003 meeting.

Prof Ruth Teer-Tomaseli (News Programming Chairperson) gave an outline of achievements and a five-year review of programming issues. She presented the immediate-term challenges.

Mr Ashwin Trikamjee (Programming Chairperson TV & Radio) outlined the achievements and challenges of the five-year review of programming. The SABC had invested significantly in the local context. Radio had also been repositioned.

Dr William Rowland (Board Member) outlined the future steps for disability programming and the progress in the amount of content.

Dr Fritz Kok (HR Chairperson) explained the empowerment approach and the employment equity gains. Many strides had been taken in relation to the inclusions of blacks and women. The SABC had also adopted an approach that gave rewards for performance.

Mr Robin Nicholson (Chairperson Finance & Audit Committee) explained the transformation of the financial division. The SABC's financial situation had stabilised considerably. The challenges that had been faced involved the funding of the SABC mandate.

Dr Maphai concluded the presentation by pointing out that the main goal of the current board was not to allow the new board to inherit a crisis. He closed by saying that the SABC could only move forward and improve.

Discussion
Mr F Maserumule (ANC) asked what the new Chairperson would need to do to retain skill and talent in the SABC.

Mr M Phadagi (ANC) asked the board for the timeframes for launching the regional stations.

Ms M Smuts (DA) asked about the position of the R115 million in relation to the Department and Treasury. On the issue of the two regional stations, according to the print media and the application to ICASA, the figure mooted was R200 million. She felt that the figure was too modest for the launch of a station. She asked about the planning and thinking of the stations. On the issue of the bureau in Harare, did the SABC have a contract in Zimbabwe and what was the latest on the situation? She also asked about the clearing of rights and the issue of neighbouring countries and the SABC as well as an update on the situation between the SABC and DSTV.

Mrs W S Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC) agreed that a lot of work had been done for the disabled. She said that more could be done. She asked what the SABC was doing about subtitling movies. On the issue of the elections, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) advertisements had no subtitles nor signing especially on the regional channels. What was the situation?

Mr R Pieterse (ANC) congratulated the SABC on the News in 60 seconds idea. The member was concerned about the signal coverage in rural areas because it was not good. Some areas had to watch SABC news via DSTV. He also asked how the SABC contributed to nation building here and in Africa. Was the SABC being a catalyst to improve broadcasting in other African countries?

Mr Lekgoro commented that the Society of the Deaf was very concerned that they were being excluded from the election because the IEC advertisements excluded them. Secondly a figure had been given that the latest calculation of disabled staff in the SABC was 14 out of 3 054 staff which was less than 1%.

Mr Maphai responded to the question of skills retention and talent by saying that people stick to their jobs because of a conducive work environment and if there is a career path in organisations. He said that the first task of any board was to ensure that potential staff believe that they are connected to a serious institution. "Serious institutions attract serious people". The board needed to send a clear message that they run a professional outfit therefore attracting serious people. He reminded the committee that the SABC was competing with the private sector for remuneration. The current nature of top management in the SABC were always operating under fear. He said that new board had to reassure top management that the board would support them.

He explained the problems with BOP TV. When the current board had come into power they were instructed by the Department that BOP was not owned by the SABC but by government, Treasury would finance BOP up to a point and that the SABC should fund BOP for two years through a loan to the Department which would be paid back later. The problem now was that auditors were demanding the agreement of loan (terms) which the board does not have. The board had acted in faith. The issue now was the repayment of the loan to the Department. The last information that the board had was that BOP belonged to the SABC, therefore all expenditure was not the responsibility of SABC. The loan given to Department now looked like fruitless expenditure and it can be claimed back legally from the individual members of the board. Legal advice suggested that the SABC take the government to court. The issue would be solved by the 31 December.

Mr Peter Matlare (Chief Executive Officer) gave input on the issue of regional channels. The Act required the SABC to apply for the two regional channels in the first week of December. The SABC was ready to apply but they had an issue with the sources of funding. The Treasury was of the view that a private-public partnership should be looked into together with potential partners. This issue complicated the application to ICASA. The issue of timeframes would depend on the regulators. He estimated that the channels would be operational end of next year or the beginning of 2005. The key issue was recapitalisation. Depending on the infrastructure chosen by the regulator the first channel would possible come out earlier. The next issues would be how the channels would run. For example, would they centralise scheduling etc? The funding figures quoted in This Day had been introduced to the regulators by the consultants and not the SABC.

Mr Solly Mokoetle (Chief Operating Officer) explained that there were two significant parts to the funding in the business plan. The first part was the issue of content because the SABC was a content provider, the second part is the industrial strategy which involved infrastructure, skills base etc. An enormous cost in the business plan is the creation of new infrastructure and the decision about which infrastructure to use. The SABC was ready to provide the regulator with content but the issue was what platform the regulator would use. In short the SABC was waiting for the regulator to decide on the platform.

Mr Matlare discussed disability services. He explained that across the SABC businesses they wanted to provide disability services. They did not want this policy to be ad hoc and the results of their roll-out policy would be seen soon and were designed to have a harder and longer impact. On the issue of the bureaus, Mr Matlare clarified that they did not have bureaus in other countries what they had were correspondents. The SABC had plans to open bureaus but the cost of one bureau was R6,6 million and this amount needed to be fitted into the budget. Access referred to the acquisition of material from across Africa as part of the programme to ensure that all the news sent to them was credible. The plans for the bureaus would take 3 to 5 years and it was not part of their immediate plans.

Dr Rowland agreed that the captioning of movies was really limited. He pointed out that a new comprehensive approach to programming which the SABC had embarked on, would deal with the issue. The IEC advertisements were made by the IEC therefore the issue of the lack of signing and subtitles must go to the IEC. The figure of 14 disabled SABC staff was correct. He reminded the committee that the SABC also hired contract workers which included disabled staff. There was a new policy in place to deal with the issue.

Dr Kok added that in the SABC annual report the SABC had a mandate to appoint 3,3% disabled staff by the end of 2004. The process had started.

Mr Mokoetle spoke on the issue of the election advertisements from the IEC. The advertisements were provided to the SABC meaning that the SABC did not make them. The SABC was working with the IEC on making the advertisement therefore the issue would be taken up.

Mr Matlare added that they had planned a rigorous election campaign. There were key programme s and debates scheduled and the SABC would ensure that all the programme s were probably signed. This was part of the public broadcasting mandate. He explained that the SABC's contribution to the continent was linked to two regulators in Africa and they would deliver SABC programme s to the rest of Africa by December. There had been increased demand in programming from the SABC. A current proposal was the discussion with a UK regulator to broadcast South African programme s to South Africans living in the UK. This was part of globalisation. On the issue of SABC Africa, the deal saw the programme running for 3 to 4 years. It was a commercial enterprise and a financial deal with DSTV. SABC Africa was also broadcast through the SABC2 channel. Coverage from rural areas definitely needed to improve and the SABC was working very hard on it. On the issue of nation building he said that the SABC had a foundation that drove projects on nation building. The foundation showcased what ordinary South Africans were doing.

Mr Jimi Mathews (Head TV News) explained that News in 60 Seconds was an endeavour to move news into prime time. SABC had given up late night news and they were currently looking at ways and models to address that. They were looking at expanding. He added that on the issue of the bureaus, the SABC had not applied for a licence in Zimbabwe and they would not be applying for a licence. The SABC had employed a local TV station with accredited journalists and they commission stories from them.

Ms A Van Wyk (speaking in Afrikaans) asked about the lack of Afrikaans broadcasts across the country. She pointed out that there were many black Afrikaans-speaking people.

Mr Phadagi asked about the funding model under review by the SABC. What was the most appropriate funding model in mind.

Dr P Mulder (FF) asked if the SABC had liaised with political parties regarding the rules about the elections. Was there a centralised system to deal with complaints during the election?

Ms N Magazi (ANC) congratulated the outgoing board on their performance. She pointed out that the progress made was in line with the programme of NEPAD.

Mr E Magashule (ANC) asked about a dedicated parliamentary channel. He congratulated the SABC for their work on languages and the focus on Africa.

Mr Pieterse asked about licence fees and the increases. He wanted to know what needed to be done to make people see the payment of licence fees as a responsibility.

Mr A Maziya (ANC) asked about the bursaries given to the children of staff. Was there an allocation for it? He asked about the strategies that the SABC had for retention and remuneration. What education and training opportunities are there for the staff? He also asked why the coverage of political parties particularly the ruling party was always on controversies as opposed to positive events.

Mr Matlare explained that Afrikaans was just one of the languages that have to be dealt with. There were mechanisms to try and account for all the languages. The regional channels would help in this regard. The issue of funding was that public broadcasting was funded by government but this had consistently diminished. A recapitalisation plan was needed and it would cost over a billion rand. On the issue of licences, piracy had been reduced from 50% five years ago to 30.9%. Revenue collection went up by R12 million. Dealers had been dealt with and the SABC was looking at creative ways to make people pay.

Mr Nicholson commented that the funding at SABC was complex and contentious. The board was driving the SABC to become self funding. Currently 84% is made up of revenue and other services, 13% from licences and 3% was government funding. The strategy involved the maximisation of revenues that the SABC was responsible for. They were also trying to approach government with the right policy constructs. They also saw cost reduction as the redirection of investments. They had also redirected capital expenditure. A lot of work had been done and now they were bringing it all together.

Mr Matlare explained that a document had been sent out to political parties and the public so everyone would know the rules. The SABC had set up a special election unit to expeditiously and swiftly deal with any issues within a 24 hour period. This was drawn from the experience of the past two elections. In regard to the parliamentary television radio services, the SABC would have to look at the mandate and funding would have to be looked at. It was not part of the plans for the immediate year but he guaranteed that if they could find funding they would look at it. On the issue of bursaries there was a training and development policy that had been implemented at various levels. They provided middle management courses and assistance to staff to go and study. The retention strategy involved an organisational culture of people wanting to work. They had implemented a long-term incentive scheme to ensure that skills remained in the system.

Dr Maphai said that 18% of the performance review went to human resource issues therefore it was taken seriously.

Meeting adjourned..