Cape Town - The SABC invested more than R700 million in local content last year, with drama shows getting the biggest chunk at R282m, while education and children’s shows got the smallest share, of about R50m respectively.
The spending details on local content came soon after South Africa’s television production sector, represented by the South African Screen Federation, said it was considering legal action against the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa to force it to explain why it had not been monitoring the SABC’s local programming content.
The organisation said a lack of SABC monitoring by Icasa had “resulted in an increasing reliance on the same recycled, mostly American, series”, and “a dramatic increase in repeats of local series and films dating back 10 years”.
This week, Communications Minister Dina Pule released figures on how much the SABC had spent on local content per genre.
In a written parliamentary reply to Cope MP Juli Kilian, Pule said that, during the financial year ending March 31, the SABC awarded contracts to the value of just over R758m.
A breakdown of the investment per genre over the last financial year shows how documentaries, education and children’s programmes got the smallest amounts.
In 2012, sport got an investment of R114m, while education and children’s programmes received R57m and R56m respectively.
A further breakdown:
* Drama: R282.3m.
* Entertainment: R117m.
* Religion: R53m.
* “Other”: R2.3m.
From January this year to date, the SABC had awarded contracts to the value of R281m across all genres, said Pule.
Kilian also queried delays in the commissioning process, in which firms were awarded contracts, but took too long to get Sars tax clearance certificates.
Individual scriptwriters were also causing delays for the public broadcaster, as they failed to set up “formal entities” or businesses, which took too long to finalise.
“The November 2011 (request for proposal) pitching sessions were delayed by three months because the SABC had to ensure that proposal submissions were in line with the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act.
“As part of industry development, new entrants were invited to attend the pitching process. Utilising this process, new companies, particularly black companies, were exposed to the broadcast pitch environment, thus empowering them with valuable knowledge of submitting for further RFP books issued by the SABC,” said Pule.
* The DA has also taken Pule to task for the R1.5m payout to former SABC head of news and current affairs Phil Molefe.
DA communication spokeswoman Marian Shinn said the party needed clarity on two main issues: the amount, which was considerably lower than that originally demanded, “and the fact that his disciplinary hearing was, according to the minister of communications, due to start”.
Political Bureau