16 July 2020

Dear Mr. Thanduxolo Jika

Re: Mail & Guardian Enquiry

In response to your media enquiry, kindly receive the SABC’s response as follows:

Question 1

Considering the above summary and the attached letter, what is the SABC's response to
these claims and complaints?

Response

The SABC would like to put it on record that section 189 process that the organisation is
embarking on is fully compliant with the prescripts of the Labour Relations Act. This process
is a legislated process for employers including the SABC. Therefore the SABC would like to
reject the allegation that it has not  been compliant with the prescribed law. At this stage the
first CCMA facilitated session between the SABC and Organised Labour was held on
Thursday, 02 July 2020 and has been postponed to today, 16 th of July 2020. This process
will ensure that engagements are appropriately mediated and that the decisions reached are
in the best interest of all parties concerned. It is imperative to note that these meetings are
intended to provide a platform for meaningful engagements with employees and or their
unions to explore various alternatives which could be considered and implemented to
minimise or avoid the retrenchments.

It is also disingenuous for organised labour to associate the engagement held by

management directly with employees to the process of retrenchments. Despite a number of
correspondences to Organised Labour assuring them that this is not the case, it is
unfortunate that they still continue with this false narrative. In any case, the SABC like any
employer has a right to engage with its employees at any given time to discuss
issues pertaining to the operations of the organisation even when section 189 is ensuing.
This is a universally acceptable principle. It is also worth mentioning that over 50% of SABC
employees are non-unionised hence the need to transparently engage with them and they
are represented at the CCMA facilitated process.

Question 2

Did the SABC err when it announced  retrenchments before considering any other
alternatives or asked for proposals?

Response

It is not true that the SABC did not explore other options prior to considering instituting
Section 189  of the Labour Relations Act (LRA). The SABC finds itself in a very difficult
situation, which compels it to consider retrenchments for economic reasons and its
operational requirements. The biggest cost-driver for the organisation is its salary bill which
is equivalent to the organisation’s operational costs and this is no way sustainable. The
SABC’s salary bill accounts for more than 45% of its expenditure, this figure is totally out of
sync when compared to other broadcaster. The narrative that suggest that the SABC has not
explored any other option prior to issuing of the notice of its intention to embark on a
retrenchment process is misleading. The SABC did not only look at one area to reduce the
operational costs. The SABC’s dire situation is well documented, and at some point it
threatened the public broadcaster’s ability to fully meet its public service mandate on the
delivery of Sports of national interest. For this reason, there have been great strides to
embark on  major cost cutting measures including reviewing sports rights acquisitions.
In the past year there were concerted efforts to look at all of the deals in as far as sports
rights are concerned and whether they are commercially viable for the organisation. Sports
broadcast rights deal that would have cost the company R1.4 billion over five years will now
cost R360 million. Another one that would have cost R550 million will now cost R110 million
over five years.

Other initiatives aimed at reducing the unsustainable cost burden, have been identified and 
include, the disposal of non-core assets as outlined in the property strategy; the reduction of
signal distribution costs (transmitter audits, review of SENTECH chart of accounts); pursuing
capex projects with discernible return on investment (ROI), reviewing our content acquisition
model to ensure cost effectiveness; improving SCM capacity and processes to ensure
achievement of value for money and advocating for legislative and regulatory changes to
enable the SABC to compete better in the market. To reduce further costs, the SABC is
currently lobbying ICASA and other stakeholders to amend the regulations regarding the
digital migration programme. This will not only enable the use of new and affordable
technologies at far less, it will also help eliminate the issues of penalties for delayed
compliance.

Question 3

What is the SABC's response regarding the allegations or claims that its skills audit process
is flawed?

Response

It is not true that the Skills audit process was flawed. The rationale, timeline and the
outcomes of skills audit were thoroughly outlined to all staff members.  The process was
carried out with utmost transparency and will assist the organisation to achieve its
envisioned re-designed SABC that is modern, agile and is future-focused. The  skills audit
has provided the organisation with a sense of the human capital capacity that the SABC
possesses in terms of skills competencies, experience and qualifications. The outcome of
this process will assist decision-making in the matching of skills to tasks, and in guiding
training and development interventions. It is also not correct for the skills audit to be
considered as a prerequisite for the SABC to embark on the retrenchment process.