Note: Stephen Grootes presented the breakfast show on SAfm, SAfm Sunrise, from 2018 until earlier this year. He is also now employed by one of the companies mentioned in this story, Primedia Broadcasting, where he now presents The Money Show on 702 and Cape Talk. He is a regular contributor to these pages. In other words, he’s hopelessly conflicted when he writes the Opinionista piece below.
There can be no doubt of the problems facing the SABC. Radio Park, where I worked for six years, can give the impression it is falling apart. The air conditioning regularly doesn’t work, there are major water problems and the state of the studios of some stations can be embarrassing.
You don’t have to take my word for it, but the word of its chief financial officer, Yolande van Biljon. Last year she told Parliament that the buildings that house it in Joburg are 45 years old, have not had proper maintenance, and that from time to time, “Ultimately, we don’t have water to run our chillers which is what powers our air-cons”.
And former journalism professor Anton Harber tweeted last year the situation can sometimes be intolerable: “Ready to go on air at #SABCnews to discuss the state of the #SABC and there is no air-conditioning, no water in the building and the sound system is crashing. Need I say more?”
This places the SABC’s employees, people I worked with, respect greatly and miss deeply, in an impossible position.
Already these people have had to endure the abuse and humiliation of the Hlaudi Motsoeneng era (for which no formal apology has ever been offered to them). Now they have to try to do their jobs (which they often see, correctly, as a national duty) in terrible circumstances.
Solutions
There may be some solutions to this problem that could involve the private sector.
Read more: The nixing of the SABC Bill and the evolving tensions in the national coalition
In the past, there have been serious suggestions that more SABC stations could be sold to private companies. Those who propose this might argue that the SABC does not need three national stations that broadcast music in English (Metro, Radio 2000 and 5FM).
But for the SABC to actually sell a station may be a step too far. It would mean the state is giving up what should be an asset and losing control over it permanently.
And public broadcasting, in a society such as ours, is an absolute necessity. That doesn’t mean the private sector cannot play a greater role.
At the same time, one of the strategies of the DA has been to find parts of ANC policy that it likes, and then use its position in government to push them as hard as it can. For example, it said during the coalition negotiations that Operation Vulindlela must continue.
This means that if it can find areas where the private sector is playing a role in public broadcasting, it might support those too, or use them as a wedge to increase the role of the private sector.
Already, two SABC radio stations each give over one hour a day to a private provider. Moneyweb broadcasts business programmes both on SAfm and on Radio Sonder Grense.
In doing this it provides a service, something that the listeners to these stations benefit from.
Malatsi, and others, might argue that while selling SABC radio stations is too extreme, there would be nothing wrong with giving more of their airtime to private operators.
This could be through a revenue-sharing agreement, where the private company would sell advertising for their time-slot, and then share that revenue with the SABC.
In some ways, this could be heresy for those who believe that public broadcasting and commercial broadcasting should never mix. While that is understandable, the SABC has been dependent on commercial advertising for many years.
And, to ensure there is proper accountability, any agreement between the SABC and a commercial operator could include strict conditions about content (this would not be very different from the contracts that SABC presenters already sign). In other words, the content might not be much different from what the SABC is currently doing. And it would always retain the right to terminate the agreement and thus regain full operational control over that airtime.
Cost benefits
This would then mean the SABC would both benefit from the revenue, while also cutting its costs.
It could also mean that some of these shows would be broadcast from other places, thus reducing the wear and tear on already worn-down SABC facilities.
Read more: SABC Bill furore shows how desperate the ANC is to control the broadcaster
The SABC may be further down this road than you think.
Two years ago, it emerged that Primedia had been asked by the SABC to sell its airtime. Essentially the public broadcaster was outsourcing this function to a commercial operator (in the end the deal was opposed by another commercial operator Kagiso, and it went to court).
If the SABC was already prepared to outsource that function, it might not be too big a stretch to outsource some of its broadcasting functions as well. Especially as it already does this in a limited form.
Of course, the big test of this would not be the English-language stations, but rather the stations that broadcast in other languages. These stations have huge audiences and thus massive advertising potential.
For various reasons, this has never been properly realised by the SABC.
There are many reasons why the proposals above should not happen; it may always be dangerous to give commercial broadcasters too much of a role in public broadcasting. It could lead to difficult competition issues. Some commercial operators may say they want nothing to do with the SABC.
But, considering the crisis the SABC is in at the moment, and the inevitable delay in fixing the funding model, it may also be the least-worst option in keeping our very necessary public broadcaster alive. DM