South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) Chief Executive Officer, Nomsa Chabeli, has assured Members of Parliament (MP) that the public broadcaster will cover the November 4 local government election, to the level its finances will allow.
The SABC and Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) are appearing before the Porfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, to brief MPs on its state of readiness to cover the election.
In previous meetings, the SABC has made the committee aware of its financial constraints to cover the polls.
SA Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi has also briefed the committee that funding if sourced may not be to the extent required by SABC.
Chabeli says a lack of funding may lead to limitations.
“We will cover the election irrespective of the funding outcome. However, that will determine the scale, the depth and our technical ambition because Honorable Chair, as you know, we have come in front of this body a couple of times just to say that SABC’s technology bedrock has reached end of life. We are using a very archaic technology infrastructure and its resilience will come under pressure during the election period.”
–SABC–
