SABC is ‘technically insolvent’, CEO Madoda Mxakwe says
Mxakwe says the SABC's wage bill is R3.1bn and its total expenditure is R3.5bn
The SABC, which suffered a net loss of R622m for the 2017-2018 financial year is now ‘‘technically insolvent’’ and unable to fulfil its financial obligations, CEO Madoda Mxakwe said on Wednesday. ‘‘If we were a private company, we would have been recapitalised,’’ he said at a briefing with reporters in Johannesburg, on the dire financial situation at the public broadcaster. He said the threat of commercial insolvency was also increasing. In 2017, the SABC found itself in deep financial trouble. There were fears at the time that it would collapse should it fail to get a government guarantee of R1bn. In the 2016-2017 financial year, the SABC recorded a loss of R977m, and R411m in 2015-2016. The huge losses were attributed partly to axed COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s controversial 90% local-content policy, which the interim board has since ended. On Monday, the SABC announced that it would proceed with retrenchments in a bid to cut costs. It was looking at cutting 981 of its 3,376 permanent ...
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