The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is facing serious financial issues, and has warned that a communication blackout is ‘imminent’.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>, SABC board chair Bongumusa Makhathini, said that the national broadcaster had to choose between paying staff and municipal accounts at the end of March.<\/p>\n It opted to pay its staff and now owes the City of Johannesburg more than R13.5 million. However the broadcaster is still facing a serious shortfall.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June,\u201d said Makhathini.<\/p>\n “We have also not maintained any of our infrastructure and a communication blackout is imminent. We anticipated ‘Day Zero’ in March, but we have managed to stay on air until now.”<\/p>\n Makhathini said that the broadcaster also owes signal company Sentech R317 million and SuperSport R208 million.<\/p>\n However, it appears that government is not prepared to let the broadcaster fall away just yet. A department of communications spokesperson told the Sunday Times that it was in the process of considering a R3.2 billion bailout for the SABC.<\/p>\n Failing state enterprises<\/strong><\/p>\n The SABC is just one of a number of state-owned enterprises that is dealing with a major financial crisis.<\/p>\n According to the National Treasury<\/a><\/strong>, South Africa has no option but to increase financial support for Eskom.<\/p>\n The government approved a R69 billion ($4.6 billion), three-year bailout for the debt-laden company in February, but both finance minister Tito Mboweni and Eskom Chairman Jabu Mabuza have since indicated that it won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n The enormous pressure of keeping the power utility afloat led to the resignation of CEO Phakamani Hadebe at the end of May.<\/p>\n