South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) top brass have today told the Standing Committee on Appropriations, that intervention is required, to keep the public broadcaster on air.
Appearing before the committee to discuss its funding model, the SABC told Members of Parliament that despite doing well from an audit perspective-
The withdrawal of the SABC Bill, no access to capital, and having to compete with media entities that are solely commercial, could sound the death knell for the public broadcaster.
The financial woes of the SABC are no secret and neither is the impact of the outdated funding model.
SABC Chief Executive Officer, Nomsa Chabeli, compared the entity to other public broadcasters around the world.
All those countries are funded, the SABC is the most commercial public broadcaster in the world and its very unusual for a developing state, the BBC is funded, the BBC 80% funded by the state.
And the SABC is the inverse, so it’s something that we need to look at. The role of public broadcasting in fact, now more than ever is critical, in the age of misinformation and disinformation.”
–SABC–
