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SABC hasn’t yet paid all severance packages due to retrenched employees

Details

sabcCity Press reports that some of the retrenched SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) employees are at risk of losing their cars and houses because the public broadcaster has not yet paid their severance packages.

On Friday, Mmoni Seapolelo, the acting SABC spokesperson, said the process to pay the former employees was under way: “The SABC can confirm that the process of the payments of severance packages has begun. The finalisation of the settlement of all these packages is anticipated to be concluded shortly, with the majority of the payments having already taken place.” However, the public broadcaster would not comment on the negative impact the delays have had on some to its former staffers. One of the ex-employees pointed out that he had opted for a voluntary retrenchment early this year because he expected the SABC to deliver on its commitment. “My colleagues who left in January have not been paid. We accepted retrenchments with an expectation that the SABC would fulfil its obligations, but we have not been paid. You can’t tell people to take retrenchment packages and then not deliver. Some of us are unemployed. We’ve got bills to pay,” he lamented. Hannes du Buisson of the Broadcasting, Electronic, Media and Allied Workers Union (Bemawu) said on Friday that, due to the delays in the payouts, the union had lodged a dispute with the CCMA as more than 40 of its members were affected. Aubrey Tshabalala of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the SABC management’s arrogance and inability to run the entity had been exposed. The public broadcaster announced the job cuts last year and served employees with notices in June, but the process took almost 10 months to finalise.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Msindisi Fengu at City Press (paywall access only)


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