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Ministers blow hot and cold on loan guarantee for SABC

Details

sabcCity Press reports that last week was another tumultuous week for the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), with the communications and finance ministries apparently blowing hot and cold when it came to assisting with a R1.3 billion loan guarantee that the public broadcaster desperately needs to stay on air.  

The week before last, it was reported that Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams had questioned the strength of the SABC’s turnaround plan, but she did not reveal that she had received a letter from Finance Minister Tito Mboweni declining to assist with a R3.2 billion guarantee request.  But on Tuesday at the department’s budget vote, Ndabeni-Abrahams and her team presented a very different tone with Deputy Minister of Communications Pinky Kekana praising the broadcaster’s cost-cutting measures and elections coverage.  On Thursday in Parliament, Mboweni announced that the broadcaster would receive some temporary relief from the contingency reserve, but warned that the lifeline – how much is still not clear – was not “a blank cheque”.  A spokesperson for Ndabeni-Abrahams commented on Friday as follows:  “Contrary to reports that the minister misled Parliament about no bailout being forthcoming, the minister is on record saying engagements with National Treasury on financial assistance to the SABC would continue.  The interim relief is a result of these continued engagements.  Unsubstantiated, frivolous and malicious allegations and theories that the minister wants to see the back of four so-called ‘defiant’ board members and control the SABC, will not be entertained.”

  • Read the full original of Charl Blignaut’s report in the above regard at City Press


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