THE SABC has until January 15 to submit documentation showing it met conditions in order for the payout of the second tranche of the R3.2 billion bailout is made by National Treasury.
In October, some of the money, R2,1 billion, was transferred to the public broadcaster after it met certain conditions for the bailout.
“Working together with the SABC we agreed documents should be submitted by 15 January 2020 in order for remaining balance of R1.1 billion to be transferred,” Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said.
She also said when the bailout was announced, they mentioned there were conditions the SABC was supposed to meet before the total amount was released.
“This also meant we have to continuously monitor the work that is being done by SABC in terms of the spend of the money that we have availed. As I speak to you now, we have been receiving monthly updates from the SABC, so far we are happy,” Ndabeni-Abrahams added.
She said they would finalise the submission of the documents that should respond to the outstanding obligations in order for the release the R1.1bn. “We are confident the SABC will come back to us and saying we no longer require government funding,” she said.
The minister added the government and Parliament would do everything to support where they were supposed to play their role and also make sure that the regulators and everybody else has a role to play in terms of easing the way of doing work for the SABC.
“We have a responsibility to build an informed, educated and entertained society. SABC is the lead broadcaster." Mayibongwe Maqhina