Big Surprise... The South African Broadcasting Corporation had a R400 Million financial shortfall this last year and no one seems to know how to resolve the ongoing management problems at the State Run Monopoly!
It's a bit like someone not being able to spot the wood for the trees...
The SABC has no CEO; it's Board of Directors can not agree on anything (2 weeks debating on the price of toiletpaper); it is a year behind on paying the royalties for the programmes that it transmits over its network of television stations and it has a massive problem in securing new funding from various investors (due to fiscal impropriety); as well as public refusal to pay the licences for owning televisions and/or radios (due to public complaints about grossy outdated programmes and movies that have been rerun endlessly by the SABC - "Why should we pay repeatedly for the same programs that we have already seen?".
The SABC Chairperson, Ben Ngubane and his board of directors were recently rebuked and ridiculed in a session of Parliament when the Chair of the investigating comittee had to listen to puerile excuses for the SABC's Performance Report not being submitted for examination. There were several other Ministers that lambasted the SABC as "a bunch of incompetent fatcats with no concept of public accountability or responsibility".
One can only just shake your head in regard to the Troubles at the SABC, because their have been enough warning signs that all of these things would occur... But no one wanted to listen and everyone blindly expoused the Political Correct Motto: "It's not their fault, but the Legacy of Apartheid". This is a sad fact that instead of looking for proper management and skilled employees, the government resorted to cronyism and Affirmative Action appointments that have left the SABC (the National Broadcasting Corporation of South Africa) in an absolute shambles and the laughingstock of the world's watchdog organisations.
Many are calling for the resignation of the Minister in charge of the SABC, as well as the wholesale firing of the SABC Board of Directors (Cleansweep), as well as the implementation of a Caretaker Management Team to takeover and clear out the deadwood blocking the efficient productivity at the corporation. This would be the only conceivable way of getting the SABC operating properly, according to international standards: As the Caretaker team would have to completely overhaul the SABC's policies and internal regulating systems.
The Problems at the SABC are as follows:
1. There is complete fiscal anarchy in the corporate structure, which will need to be eliminated by regular public audits and reports to parliament.
2. The Management structure at the SABC is woefully top-heavy and contains numerous superflous unnecessary positions.
3. The group of Employees working at the SABC are untrained, unethical and by and large untrustworthy. This can only be remedied by instituting mandatory training workshops to acquire the sorely needed skills developement, professional ethics and then the Caretaker Team will have to weed out those employees that are "just there for the paycheck and not there to work".
4. The SABC's Standards of broadcasting to the South African Public have deteriorated massively in the last ten years, to the point that the pre-established broadcast schedule is not followed or the wrong episode is broadcast or the programme material is interupted by random "operator error" (paused, stopped, rewound, etc...) or the programme material is of such a bad condition that it is either inaudible or unviewable.
5. The Standard of Presentation has also slipped alarmingly in that the people presenting the various programmes have poor training on how to speak/pronounce words (even in their own language), refer to erroneous cues that don't exist, as well as a whole range of technical glitches that should be prevented with a little bit of operator vigilance and initiative...
6. At least half of their progamme material is woefully out of date or rebroadcast ad-nauseum, which is ridiculous as at the 60% of their programming should be new (only viewed once in a 12 month period) and reruns should be scheduled for after midnight or Saturday mornings.
In retrospect one can only wait and hope that saner minds prevail and someone, with the ability to innovate, can get involved and pull the SABC right before it becomes completely irrelevant to the needs of the South African population...
No comments:
Post a Comment