The SABC board has promised to discuss alternatives to job cuts in their next meeting following a series of consultations with communications and digital technologies minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams.

 Ndabeni-Abrahams announced this following meetings with the board and organised labour. The meetings were aimed at finding a solution to the conflict over the retrenchments. The board has agreed to discuss alternatives presented during its next meeting on Friday.

This comes as the public broadcaster has started a process of retrenching workers whose positions are affected by the section 189 process which began last year.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ndabeni-Abrahams said she, together with her employment and labour department counterpart Thulas Nxesi, presented these alternatives to both the SABC and unions in meetings  held on Tuesday and over the weekend.

The SABC board requested to be afforded time to look at the proposals in their next board meeting, Ndabeni-Abrahams' statement indicated.

“We were encouraged by the attitude and the spirit of the meetings with the SABC board and its executive management, and earlier with the unions. We have noted signs of progress and goodwill among the parties at the negotiation table,”  said  Ndabeni-Abrahams.  

It's unclear if this will in any way affect the current retrenchments which are happening at the public broadcaster, where hundreds of workers have either been served with retrenchment or redundancy letters.

The public broadcaster announced three weeks ago that it plans to retrench 303 employees, down from the initial figure of 600, after an extended consultative process. 

The broadcaster said it had now completed the process that was suspended in November, following Ndabeni-Abrahams' intervention, to allow for an extended consultation after unions complained of not being adequately consulted.