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SABC board chairman sings Motsoeneng's praises

SABC board chairman Mbulaheni Maguvhe has praised Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng for the turnaround at the organisation‚ a sentiment that was echoed by the new acting CEO James Aguma.

Maguvhe’s appointment of Aguma as acting group CEO follows the resignation — with immediate effect — of Acting CEO Jimi Matthews on Monday.

Maguvhe also appointed Audrey Raphela‚ to act in the position of Aguma‚ who is the group’s chief financial officer.

Announcing the changes‚ Maguvhe said the time for austerity at the public broadcaster had come and gone thanks to the hard work that Motsoeneng had done in getting the SABC the necessary funds.

Maguvhe said with the funds raised by Motsoeneng‚ the SABC would be able to fulfil its public mandate.

When asked to explain what Motsoeneng had done‚ Aguma said only 3% of the SABC’s revenue came from government funding.

“That is R240m against R8bn.”

Aguma said around 2009 the SABC had R15m in its bank account.

“In the last financial year that had been audited in 2015‚ we had R1bn in cash reserves. This was driven by a team that came before me‚” Aguma said.

Aguma also said two SABC channels‚ SABC Encore and SABC News Channel‚ were funded because of Motsoeneng’s deals with other commercial partners.

Aguma said because the government funded a portion of the SABC’s operations‚ the broadcaster had to raise its resources to fund its public mandate.

He said for the elections‚ the SABC had budgeted R32m and had hoped to receive funding from the government‚ which it had not received.

“Mr Motsoeneng has managed to fund R15m.”

Maguvhe said plans were afoot to launch television channels that “will cater for Bavendas‚ Basotho and Afrikaans-speaking” people.

“This is possible due to the sterling work that our COO is doing in clinching important deals for us‚” Maguvhe said.

- TMG Digital

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