Union to take legal action against SABC over retrenchments

The cash-strapped SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is forging ahead with plans to retrench close to 1,000 staff members, despite the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) warning it will take legal action to stop that.

CWU general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala yesterday said the union “will not hesitate in applying for a court interdict” to stop the massive retrenchments. The SABC financial crunch has also seen the Congress of the People (Cope) stepping up pressure on the ANC.

“The ANC is at the centre of the destruction of the SABC,” said Cope national spokesperson Dennis Bloem.

“We are not surprised by the dead silence from the ANC when thousands of SABC workers and their families are facing a bleak future – unemployment. We want to reiterate that we are totally opposed to these planned retrenchments.

“We can’t and will never understand why innocent workers must pay for the sins of Jacob Zuma, Faith Muthambi and Hlaudi Motsoeneng …

“If there is no other option, retrenchment must start with senior management and highly paid managers – not the foot soldiers.”

According to figures supplied by the SABC, the corporation’s revenue for the 2017/18 financial year stood at R6.6 billion against a budget of R7.3 billion – an underperformance of R709 million.

With a total expenditure in the 2017-18 financial year amounting to R7.269 billion, compared with a budget of R7.279 billion, major cost drivers were employees (R3.1 billion), programme, film and sports rights (R1.7 billion), signal distribution and linkage costs (R718.1 million) and broadcast costs (R487.6 million).

The SABC announced it was practically insolvent. In terms of the 2018-19 mid-year performance forecast:

• Total expenses stand at R7.64 billion – R380 million higher than in the 2017-18 financial year and below budget by R130 million.
• Employee costs are forecast at R2.94 billion – exceeding the budget by R120 million. ɳ Amortisation of content is R1.97 billion – R256 million higher than last year.
• Signal and distribution cost R750 million and other operational costs R669 million – set to exceed budget by R38 million.
• Broadcasting costs are expected to be R63 million – below budget by R503 million.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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