The funeral of late South African icon Nelson Mandela left the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) R120-million in debt, says Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
In an exclusive interview with the Saturday Dispatch, the SABC’s former chief operations officer revealed for the first time that government failed to honour its promise of providing funding towards the broadcasting costs of Mandela’s funeral.
Motsoeneng said these failures, among other things, had led to the SABC losing millions of rands – something he said many parliamentarians did not understand.
“We didn’t budget for Mandela’s funeral. When Tata Mandela passed away, we were promised R120-million by government. But we never saw that money.
“We covered that funeral from our own money because we were doing that for the country, we were doing that as the public broadcaster – but what about the promise made by government?” said Motsoeneng.
“Then when we go to parliament they will ask us to account about money that is not coming from them.”
“We don’t budget for funerals of icons – not at all. But we have a role to play as the public broadcaster.
“We make sure that we broadcast these funerals for the public as we are a public broadcaster.”
Such unplanned expenditure was hitting the SABC very hard.
“For instance, if there is breaking news, we have to disrupt the prepared programmes, disrupt adverts and by doing that we are losing money from advertisers.”
The director-general of Government Communications, Norman Munzhele, said they did not know about the previous ministry’s promises to the SABC.
“Mandela’s funeral was an international event. The country needed to be prepared for that. But we would not know about the millions of rands promised to the SABC to cover that. That could have been the previous ministry, not the current one,” said Munzhele.
He had no knowledge of any such alleged agreement.
Motsoeneng attacked parliament’s communications portfolio committee members for “wanting to appear as angels” by falsely claiming that government was pumping money into the broadcaster.
In fact, the SABC was only getting “3% or less” of their income from government.
“We respect parliament and Chapter Nine institutions including the South African courts. But members of parliament must understand that we are not getting money from government to run the SABC,” he said.
“All we get is something less than 3% of our income as a grant for migration and educational projects. We generate our own money.”
He said parliamentarians were continually misleading the public.
“Some of those members need to be honourable, but they mislead, including those who said we lost R1-billion.”
Broadcasting some programmes, such as Bafana Bafana matches and international events, fell under the mandate of the SABC, so there was no requirement to generate revenue from these events, he said.
“We depend on sponsors at times, but to host a Bafana Bafana match we are not making money. But that’s our mandate, not a loss.
“We use millions of rands to broadcast such matches and these people when they look at our books say that is a loss.
“It’s not,” said Motsoeneng. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za
Mandela funeral left SABC R120m in red: Ex-boss claims govt didn’t pay promised funds
In an exclusive interview with the Saturday Dispatch, the SABC’s former chief operations officer revealed for the first time that government failed to honour its promise of providing funding towards the broadcasting costs of Mandela’s funeral.
Motsoeneng said these failures, among other things, had led to the SABC losing millions of rands – something he said many parliamentarians did not understand.
“We didn’t budget for Mandela’s funeral. When Tata Mandela passed away, we were promised R120-million by government. But we never saw that money.
“We covered that funeral from our own money because we were doing that for the country, we were doing that as the public broadcaster – but what about the promise made by government?” said Motsoeneng.
“Then when we go to parliament they will ask us to account about money that is not coming from them.”
“We don’t budget for funerals of icons – not at all. But we have a role to play as the public broadcaster.
“We make sure that we broadcast these funerals for the public as we are a public broadcaster.”
Such unplanned expenditure was hitting the SABC very hard.
“For instance, if there is breaking news, we have to disrupt the prepared programmes, disrupt adverts and by doing that we are losing money from advertisers.”
The director-general of Government Communications, Norman Munzhele, said they did not know about the previous ministry’s promises to the SABC.
“Mandela’s funeral was an international event. The country needed to be prepared for that. But we would not know about the millions of rands promised to the SABC to cover that. That could have been the previous ministry, not the current one,” said Munzhele.
He had no knowledge of any such alleged agreement.
Motsoeneng attacked parliament’s communications portfolio committee members for “wanting to appear as angels” by falsely claiming that government was pumping money into the broadcaster.
In fact, the SABC was only getting “3% or less” of their income from government.
“We respect parliament and Chapter Nine institutions including the South African courts. But members of parliament must understand that we are not getting money from government to run the SABC,” he said.
“All we get is something less than 3% of our income as a grant for migration and educational projects. We generate our own money.”
He said parliamentarians were continually misleading the public.
“Some of those members need to be honourable, but they mislead, including those who said we lost R1-billion.”
Broadcasting some programmes, such as Bafana Bafana matches and international events, fell under the mandate of the SABC, so there was no requirement to generate revenue from these events, he said.
“We depend on sponsors at times, but to host a Bafana Bafana match we are not making money. But that’s our mandate, not a loss.
“We use millions of rands to broadcast such matches and these people when they look at our books say that is a loss.
“It’s not,” said Motsoeneng. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za
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