SABC on brink of collapse: Parliament warns of financial crisis and outdated infrastructure
Parliament’s Chairperson of the Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, Khusela Sangoni Diko, warns that the SABC is nearing collapse due to outdated infrastructure, unsustainable debt, and stalled reforms, urging immediate government intervention to save the public broadcaster.
Image: Parliament of SA
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) faces a serious risk of collapse due to financial instability, outdated infrastructure, and an unsustainable funding model.
This, according to Khusela Sangoni Diko, chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies.
Briefing the media on Monday during a presentation by the Chairpersons of the Economic Cluster, Diko said that the Committee has growing concerns about the broadcaster’s viability, particularly in light of delays to key legislative reforms and the burden currently being carried by other state entities.
“The SABC is at risk of collapse. It’s burdened by unsustainable debt, outdated infrastructure, and a broken funding model,” said Sangoni Diko.
“When we spoke about the SABC and we said, amongst others, the withdrawal of the SABC Bill is sounding a death knell on the institution, we were told we were being alarmed.”
The warning comes as Sentech, the SABC’s main signal distribution partner, is reportedly losing more than R70 million per month by subsidising the SABC’s broadcast signal costs, an arrangement that Diko described as “unsustainable”.
“Sentech, which has its main client as the SABC, is bleeding more than R70 million per month to subsidise SABC’s broadcast signal costs.
''This is unsustainable, yet the SABC Bill, which was essential to ensuring sustainability, remains stalled in this Parliament,” she said.
The Committee expressed deep concern over what it described as an “unnecessary and prolonged” delay in processing the SABC Bill and called for the government to “finalise this process and not hide behind bureaucratic red tape.”
Diko revealed that the Committee had written to Communications Minister Solly Malatsi two weeks prior, urging urgent action to address both financial and operational challenges at the public broadcaster.
“It’s been more than six months that we agreed to stand down as a committee to allow the Minister to deal with it, and not much, if anything, has been done. So we’re urging the Minister to once again finalise this process and not hide behind bureaucratic red tape,” she said.
She clarified that the SABC is not asking for a bailout but needs strategic investment from the state, as it has not received a meaningful infrastructure or technology upgrade in over a decade.
“The SABC is not looking for a bailout. We want to make this point clear, government has a responsibility to invest in the strategic asset and recapitalise it where necessary. Time for decisive action is now.”
The SABC’s struggle is not new, but the Committee’s firm tone underscores mounting frustration within Parliament over the government's perceived inaction.
The Committee has also tied the broadcaster's challenges to outdated legislation governing the ICT sector, which it says is still rooted in an analogue era.
As part of a broader strategy for the remainder of the 2024–2029 parliamentary term, the Committee has committed to fast-tracking legislative reforms that will enable entities like the SABC to operate sustainably in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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