The SABC is now asking for a R2 million “short term” bail out and R6 billion over 5 years. Now considering that officials continue to travel first class, board members hold meetings at five-star hotels, awarding senior executives bonuses in December and sanctioning travel for executives, like Thelma Melk, the company secretary who is in Los Angeles on a content purchasing visit, her sixth overseas trip since October, this is an absolutely insane request.
I have said this before and I say it again, if the SABC cannot survive on selling commercials and that ridiculous TV license we are forced to pay, THEY SHOULD GO OUT OF BUSINESS, no one would miss them. I could not name anyone I know that even watches the programming on the SABC channels, maybe the content that Thelma Melk is purchasing on all those overseas trips does not appeal to the majority of TV viewers.
Why do MNet and the other broadcasters have the same financial problems, maybe, just maybe it is because they are not government subsidized.
The same goes with the bloated, top heavy, spend happy SAA and Escom.
Take Escom for example, they are asking people to cut back 10% on power usage and then when we do cut back Escom complains that revenue has dropped because usage has dropped so they now need a bail out by means of another rate increase. It is almost as if they are surprised that their revenues were going to decline if people cut back on electricity usage.
They should all be sold to private concerns and they would do a lot better financially and the citizens of this country would get much better service delivery, and the government should concentrate on their primary task which is governing.
Contact Information:
Rick Crouch
Chairman
Democratic Alliance Ward 10 Branch
www.ward10.za.com
tel: 073 418-6996
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
