Cape Town - Parliament has welcomed the brokering of the deal to allow the SABC to broadcast soccer after two weeks of blackouts.
This followed a stalemate between the Premier Soccer League, MultiChoice and the SABC over the deal.
The SABC had complained it was not getting any money back after paying R280 million a year for the soccer rights.
But Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa and Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams intervened and met with the PSL, MultiChoice and the SABC in Cape Town on Thursday evening.
On Friday the parties announced that a deal had been struck and the soccer matches will be broadcast from this weekend.
Chairperson of the sports, arts and culture committee Beauty Dlulane said they fully support the deal as it see millions of people being able to watch soccer again.
The deal is for a period of five years.
“All sides need to honour their contractual agreement, as agreed to with the Minister, so that the poorest of the poor people of South Africa are able to view future matches without being plunged into darkness, as happened in the past two weeks”, Dlulane said.
The cash-strapped SABC has been waiting for a government bailout for two years.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni had promised to give the SABC a bailout of R3.2 billion if it met the conditions of the National Treasury.
Mboweni has insisted that any State-Owned Entity that needs a bailout would need to meet certain conditions. The government would also send a Chief Restructuring Officer to the entity concerned to monitor the use of money.