South Africa’s (SA) Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has announced a $44 million special appropriation for the Department of Communications and Digital Technology.
Godongwana made the announcement in his Budget Speech earlier Wednesday.
National Treasury had earlier this month allocated $56 million to the state signal distributor, Sentech after it was declared no longer a going concern, meaning it’s no longer considered financially stable enough to keep operating.
The allotment also comes amid an ongoing dispute between Sentech and the SABC over a backlog of unpaid distribution fees of around $101 million.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi says his department, in an application to National Treasury, motivated for the funds to be used to service SABC’s debt to Sentech.
“As part of our submissions to Godongwana, we had expressed where our immediate pressure points were. Part of it, was the historic SABC debt at Sentech. The engagement we had before the announcement in here was that the $44-million will be earmarked towards clearing the SABC Sentech debt, primarily to ensure that from Sentech’s liquidity perspective, we keep the operations there to ensure that all the broadcasters can have access to signal distribution. Because as you know, signal distribution is an important element of making sure that the public has access to both radio and television media services.”
–SABC–
