Urgent support is needed for revitalising state-owned communications entities
By Solly Phetoe
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South African Post Office (Sapo) and Postbank have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons and struggled to fulfil their developmental mandates. Yet with the right assistance, they can once again thrive and more importantly help unlock badly needed economic growth.
We live in a society struggling with 1% economic growth - 41.9% overall and 70% youth unemployment rates - embattled State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) and limping public and municipal services. Our communications sector entities can again play a positive role in supporting South Africa’s turnaround. But this requires urgent action and support. Platitudes and prayers won’t solve their challenges.
The SABC captured significant public attention over the past week due to the Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi’s decision to withdraw the SABC Bill from Parliament where it was undergoing public consultation.
Much has been said about the Bill, including that “it gives the Minister too much power over the appointment of the Board and does not provide a financial model for SABC”.
A cursory glance at the SABC Bill shows that the National Assembly retains its role in recommending appointments to the SABC Board and the Minister’s powers to remove Board members is severely curtailed. Yes, the Bill does not provide a new financial model for SABC, and it clearly requires one as the existing system of TV licenses is unworkable, but it gives the Minister three years to provide such a model.
If the Minister was unhappy with the Bill, he could easily have tabled additional amendments to the Portfolio Committee to address any weaknesses and they could then have been included. But withdrawing a Bill that has repeatedly been delayed, and is a far better draft than previous versions, does not help SABC. It simply prolongs existing crises.
The Bill affirms SABC as a publicly owned broadcaster with a specific mandate to promote education, our 12 official languages, locally produced music and entertainment, as well as to cover key national sporting and other cultural events for the public to watch.
In the absence of coherent explanations for the withdrawal of the Bill, contradictory messages from the Executive, as well as a lack of timeframes on when a new Bill may be expected, we fear the Minister may be seeking to find a way to implement the Democratic Alliance’s manifesto pledge to break up SABC and privatise it.
This would collapse the unique developmental role SABC is obliged by the Broadcasting Act to fulfil. It would undermine efforts to boost all twelve languages and local music and TV shows as well as deny those who cannot afford pay for view TV stations, the opportunity to watch the Springboks, Bafana or the Proteas.
Sapo and Postbank have been in freefall for far too long with little assistance from the state to stabilise and repivot them. Yet both, like the SABC, have the potential to thrive.
The Sixth Parliament passed the Postbank Amendment Act, which has been assented to by President Cyril Ramaphosa to enable the Postbank to become a fully licensed state-owned consumer bank. This allows it to tap into millions of consumers who have been redlined by the dominant private banks. It will inject badly needed competition into a sector in desperate need of ending monopolistic and anti-competitive behaviour.
With smart management, the Postbank can enter villages, townships, rural and informal areas where private banks can rarely be found. It can open up more affordable credit to SMMEs than that offered by the big banks. Ideally, it can help end the dangerous dependence on illegal lenders who exploit and abuse the poverty of consumers.
The Sixth Parliament passed the SAPO Amendment Bill which is currently awaiting assent by the President. It too provides a lifeline to Sapo repositioning it to enter the highly lucrative courier industry and to become a one-stop site where the public could apply for a variety of government services.
Sapo and its employees have been through a brutal few years. Once a hive of activity where relatives sent letters, money and parcels to families in rural areas; Sapo has been overtaken by the shift to digital communications and the devastation unleashed by state capture and corruption. Over the past few years, Sapo employees were not paid for months at a time, pension fund contributions were pickpocketed by management, more than 6 000 Sapo employees retrenched, rent for branches unpaid and some abandoned to vandals, and more recently 200 branches closed.
Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) were appointed under a court order with an agreed injection of credit by the Treasury to be implemented. More than a year later, things do not appear to have improved with no tangible plan besides retrenchments to emerge from the BRPs. Worryingly the promised injection of capital by Treasury due by the end of November may only be available in the new financial year.
This threatens the survival of Sapo and the jobs of its employees. This is a matter that needs to be addressed urgently lest Sapo be liquidated and lost forever.
Parliament led by the African National Congress has done well to pass these two progressive and badly needed laws. They now need to be implemented by the government, Sapo and the Postbank.
The government, from departments to municipalities, from entities to SOEs, need to play a supportive role to Sapo and the Postbank by using them as their service providers for their postal, courier and banking services as well as enabling members of the public to apply for government services through them. This will provide the liquidity required to once again not only be viable enterprises, but also to help spur local economic growth.
SABC, Sapo and Postbank have the potential to thrive, but they require support from the government to give them a fighting chance.
Cosatu General Secretary Solly Phetoe
BUSINESS REPORT