The SABC Board and management should be congratulated for achieving the organisation’s first unqualified audit opinion in 14 years.
This milestone reflects the culmination of a long journey to restore the SABC’s governance and regulatory compliance, making the audit outcome a significant achievement.
However, the tabling of the SABC’s annual report in Parliament also highlights the stark reality: even with full governance compliance and strong management, the organisation cannot break even AND effectively fulfill its unfunded public mandate—now estimated at R834 million per year—without sustainable public financing.
A statement from the SABC’s media release captures the urgency of the situation:
“The SABC’s ability to meet its obligations in the next 12 months remains a material uncertainty and requires the ongoing implementation of severe austerity measures, including but not limited to the suspension of more than 80% of the long-term Capital Plan and a limitation of investment in content. It must be noted that virtually no funding is currently available for any capital investment in innovation, infrastructure and technology.”
This reality should alarm all stakeholders. Without the capacity to invest in infrastructure and continued underinvestment in new content, audience numbers—and by extension, revenue—will continue to decline.
The situation is critical, and it is encouraging that Parliament has acknowledged the crisis around the SABC’s funding model. The situation demands an expedited policy process, inclusive of public participation, to drive the essential legislative reforms.
Meanwhile, this vital public institution operates on a precarious financial edge, with only 3% of its revenue coming from government funding, making the SABC one of the most commercially dependent public broadcasters globally.
In August 2021 Michael Markovitz was appointed to head up the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Media Leadership Think Tank – an independent research and advocacy platform dealing with the pressing issues facing the media and audiovisual industries and how these impact on democracy. In 2017 Markovitz was appointed by Parliament to the Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for a five year term. He completed his term on 15 October 2022.Markovitz has also been recognised by Rhodes University’s Journalism and Media Studies school as one of their top 50 alumni in the 50 years since the school’s founding in 1972.
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