The 90% local content quota threatens the existence of the SABC, interim board deputy chairperson Mathatha Tsedu said on Wednesday.
He said that they were looking at reversing some of the decisions that were taken prior to the installation of interim board which included the 90% local content quota rule that was introduced by the former chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
Appearing before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in parliament, Tsedu said that although the local content quota rule - which he said was not a policy - was good as it promoted South African products, it saw the national broadcaster lose close to R300-million.
"90-10 is not really a policy because it was never debated at any board meeting. It was just a directive that from now this is how you're going to do it and it's a good policy in that it promotes South African products but its implementation has to take cognisance of the fact that it must not threaten the existence of the institution itself, which is what it is doing," explained Tsedu.
"We're looking at ways of rolling back detrimental consequences of decisions that have been taken before. This would include even things like 90-10 [on radio] and 80-20 on television where radio has lost R29-million, TV has lost R183-million, we've spent R72-million additionally in sourcing new local content to displace the content that we could no longer use because we were enforcing the 90-10," said Tsedu.
The SABC, in February, reported a net loss of R411-million for the 2015/16 financial year, an increase of R16-million the previous financial year.
Although it has been met with criticism, the 90% rule enjoys a lot of support from local artists including the Wololo hitmaker Babes Wodumo, William Mthethwa, Blondie Makhene, Doc Shebeleza, Babsie Mlangeni and more.
Hlaudi's 90% rule threatens the existence of the SABC, Scopa hears
The 90% local content quota threatens the existence of the SABC, interim board deputy chairperson Mathatha Tsedu said on Wednesday.
He said that they were looking at reversing some of the decisions that were taken prior to the installation of interim board which included the 90% local content quota rule that was introduced by the former chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
Appearing before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in parliament, Tsedu said that although the local content quota rule - which he said was not a policy - was good as it promoted South African products, it saw the national broadcaster lose close to R300-million.
"90-10 is not really a policy because it was never debated at any board meeting. It was just a directive that from now this is how you're going to do it and it's a good policy in that it promotes South African products but its implementation has to take cognisance of the fact that it must not threaten the existence of the institution itself, which is what it is doing," explained Tsedu.
"We're looking at ways of rolling back detrimental consequences of decisions that have been taken before. This would include even things like 90-10 [on radio] and 80-20 on television where radio has lost R29-million, TV has lost R183-million, we've spent R72-million additionally in sourcing new local content to displace the content that we could no longer use because we were enforcing the 90-10," said Tsedu.
The SABC, in February, reported a net loss of R411-million for the 2015/16 financial year, an increase of R16-million the previous financial year.
Although it has been met with criticism, the 90% rule enjoys a lot of support from local artists including the Wololo hitmaker Babes Wodumo, William Mthethwa, Blondie Makhene, Doc Shebeleza, Babsie Mlangeni and more.
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