Question NW106 to the Minister of Communications
28 February 2020 - NW106
Van Dyk, Ms V to ask the Minister of Communications
What (a) are the reasons that the repeat fee claims (details furnished) submitted to the SA Broadcasting Corporation have not been paid on time in compliance with the National Treasury circulars on the timeous payment of invoices and claims and (b) actions have been taken against the relevant accounting officers for the (i) late and/or (ii) no payments?
Reply:
I have been advised by the SA Broadcasting Corporation as follows:
a) The SABC has a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in place on Royalties which stipulates the processes, timelines and requirements for a claim to be successfully processed and paid. These requirements have been communicated to all claimants. The SABC has paid on time all repeat claims which met the prescribed requirements. The public broadcaster is processing claims that are due for payment at the end of February 2020.
There are several older claims which are in dispute, based on the fact that these do not fully comply with the requirements, i.e. licenses (SABC does not pay repeat fees on Licensed Content), not being lead actors (only lead actors can claim). Some of the older claims are disputed by the SABC due to fact that no contracts have been provided as proof and claimants are not willing to align the rate with the prescribed requirements and processes. However, the SABC is willing to pay these claims if the claimants align with prescribed requirements. The older claims have been raised in various forums and have been dealt with in several continuous communication and forums.
b) No actions have been taken against anyone as there is no dereliction of duty involved.(i) and (ii) as per Annx.A
MS. STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS
MINISTER