JOHANNESBURG - The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Monday, sent a notification to staff informing them of the public broadcaster's intention to proceed with Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).
The SABC said all employees, including the group services, provincial operations, commercial enterprises, media technology and infrastructure, news, radio, sport and television would be affected.
"This exercise should result in a cost saving of approximately R440 million per annum, even at this preliminary stage. This amount excludes the projected cost savings from the planned reduction of freelancers."
Earlier today, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) announced that the country's unemployment rate hit the highest all year, with data showing that for the third quarter the unemployment rate rose to 27.5%.
Data from the Statistics South Africa showed that 127 000 people lost their jobs in the quarter and reached 6.2 million as the country's economy continues to punch below its weight.
The stats agency said 4,3 million of the unemployed people have been unemployed for a year or longer.
South African users took to Twitter to voice their concerns about the job cuts at the national broadcaster, blaming corruption at the SABC as the main reason for the job cuts.
Take a look at what Twitter users had to say about the SABC job cuts below:
SABC: 980 full time employees to be retrenched & 1200 contract workers not to have their contracts extended. It's a bloodbath. Thank you Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
— Kgauza wa Lecowza (@KgaugeloSM) October 30, 2018
being retrenched is devastating. my prayers are with those losing their jobs at the sabc 💔
— claire mawisa (@clairemawisa) October 30, 2018
Perhaps the #SABC should retrench the board members!
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) October 29, 2018
The SABC is considering retrenching over 900 full time employees and not renewing over 1200 freelancers' contracts. Real life consequences of mismanagement and corruption.
— Andile Mlondo (@AndileMlondo) October 29, 2018
Yet another mess inflicted by an inept Executive, a delinquent & meddling by ANC politicians is about to affect the innocent, coalface employees. The developments at the SABC were inevitable. https://t.co/uCxVPlRAn3
— Vusi Sambo (@VusiSambo) October 29, 2018
Surely the SABC can't keep all those people employed if they are not creating enough revenue to keep all of them. @TheRealClementM
— Floyd (@AmuFloyd) October 30, 2018
And lets retrench half the SABC staff to add to it.