THE beleaguered SABC is to receive R200m from the government to meet short-term liquidity requirements, the first in a basket of solutions to address the public broadcaster's financial crisis, writes Chantelle Benjamin in Business Day.
SABC interim board chairman Irene Charnley said yesterday, following the announcement by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his medium-term budget speech, that the payout "was part of a process to get the SABC's total liquidity problem resolved" and was not the only assistance the SABC could expect.
Charnley was not willing to say exactly what the R200m would be used for, but a source within the SABC said it was intended to fund local industry production — both the outstanding payments for work received and the commissioning of new work.
"Once we have resolved all the issues, we will go to the public and outline the whole picture," Charnley said.
She said the Communications Ministry had been helpful in assisting the board to lobby the government for the funding.
Earlier this year the SABC met the Department of Communications and the Treasury seeking assistance or financial guarantees to help it overturn its R2bn losses, warning that if it failed to secure funding and the heavy losses continued, the bail-out in a few years' time would cost taxpayers millions more.
Click here to read the full report, posted on Business Day's website.
