Wednesday | November 18, 2020
The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) plans to retrench 400 employees were skuppered after workers held a heated meeting with the Group Executive (GE) for News and Current Affairs Phathiswa Magopeni on Tuesday.
Aubrey Tshabalala of Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the protest against management to halt the retrenchment shows the force of cohesion and solidarity among the workers.
While the public broadcaster is embarking on streamlining its workforce to cut costs, employees feel they are being sacrificed for management blunders. Thus, employees are demanding that these retrenchments be expunged and management quit.
SABC News reported last night that Magopeni pulled the plug on “issuing letters of redundancy and suggests a new process going forward”. Workers had threatened a news blackout. Despite this notice, the Head of Human Resource at the SABC Mojaki Mosia issued a statement confirming the continuation of the planned retrenchments today [Wednesday].
The statement said:
“In light of the unfortunate incident which took place at our news division last night, please note that the S189 process is continuing as planned. SABC management and its Board apologise for any confusion that was created yesterday afternoon.”
Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi, Deputy Chairperson of the SABC Board, said on Newzroom Afrika that the minority view (of five board members out of 11) does not support the retrenchments. They contend that there are other options to curtail costs sinking the broadcaster.
SABC posted a R511 million loss for the period 2019/2020, according to its annual report released on Tuesday, November 17. This year’s disappointing results come at the back of the R482,4million posted in the previous period.
Signal distribution (which accounts for 12% to 13%) and salary bill (accounting for 43%) are the high cost drivers, she said. These percentages were confirmed by chairperson of the SABC board Bongumusa Makhathini. To counter these unbearable costs, containing salary increases, cutting bonosus and procurement processes, among others, may be used, Mohlala-Mulaudzi remarked.
Quite clearly, the signs of flip-flopping around the retraction of retrenchment letters and reinstating them within 24 hours raises alarm. Furthermore, the views advantaged by Mohlala-Mulaudzi (and largely shared by the affected employees) show how deep the chasm is in handling this sensitive saga at the SABC.
The Times reported that: “Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams called an urgent meeting of the SABC board on Tuesday night following a heated staff meeting over proposed retrenchments.
According Mohlala-Mulaudzi, the SABC board is going to meet with the parliamentary committee on communication it reports to later today.