South African public broadcaster SABC has released the following statement regarding a board meeting held on 30 October in Johannesburg. The statement reads: In the meeting the board dealt with a variety of issues – it reviewed and approved the SABC’s Intellectual Property (IP) policy which will come into effect immediately.
The board believes that through its implementation of the policy, it will begin to address the concerns of the television production sector, in how the usage of their content will be dealt with moving forward.
The new policy provides for a greater share of the content exploitation revenue. The corporation is currently the only local broadcaster in South Africa that shares a percentage of its net profits from content sales with the producers in perpetuity on its commissioned works.
The SABC remains cognisant of its role as the Public Service Broadcaster, to support and contribute to the development of the local production industry. To this end, producers must be empowered to the point where they can share more of the financial risk of production and not to be overly dependent on the SABC for funding. The corporation will continue to 100% commission, co-produce and license content. In order to manage costs effectively more focus will be given to co-production and licensing of content.
The Delegation of Authority Framework (DAF) of the SABC – as defined by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) act 29/1999 as amended, Companies Act 71/2008, the Income Tax Act 58/1962 as amended, Vat Act 89/1991 as amended, Electronic Communications Act 36/2005 and ICASA licence conditions that govern our 18 Radio Stations and three Television Channels – also underwent review of the board and was approved for immediate implementation. This formed part of the process to tighten governance and controls in the running of the corporation.
This is a major milestone in redressing the past practices within the SABC that led to fruitless and wasteful expenditure and adverse audit findings. As spelt out in the Auditor General report, SIU report and the final amended annual results of the SABC as presented to the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communication on the 11thSeptember 2012.
The terms of reference of the board sub-committees, save for the two that are in the process of being finalised, were recommended by the sub-committees to the board for approval. The terms of reference will govern the sub-committees’ oversight role of the SABC business.
The Board Charter, which sets out the corporate governance policies of the SABC as read with the shareholder compact between the SABC and the Minister of Communications was also approved.
The forensic attorneys who have been investigating the suspended chief financial officer, Gugu Duda, presented their report to the board. Currently charges are being drawn up against her and a disciplinary hearing is imminent.
Overall the board has expressed its satisfaction at the progress that has been shown by the current management team in turning around the organisation. The SABC currently has a net profit of over R343m. This was achieved against a target of R225m as set out according to the conditions of the Government Guarantee given to the SABC. The results represent a 7% increase in revenue, and a 2% reduction in operating expenditure. The organisation’s financial situation is liquid, with R1bn in cash reserves.
