SABC drain

The SABC has been in the news for a while now, especially with their esteemed board of dirctor's and the public war they have been waging amongst themselves. The CEO who is kicked out, then brought back, then kicked out...and of course, they company is run worse than a bankrupt spaza shop, running at a major loss.

The latest come from the news that they pushing through a bill to scrap TV licencses- Yipee...then the flipside- they are to increase income tax by 1% to cover this and to fund the SABC...not so yipee...

As it is the programming is a fine mess. We see brand new programmes or new series broadcast after ten at night. Pretty much the time most people are running round dreamland. Then they pepper us with repeats of programmes they broadcast before during peak viewing times. I mean some of the Afrikaans programmes being repeated are 20 years old or so. Then then on a Saturday night, in prime time viewing, instead of the new Navy NCIS or a good movie, we get a repeat of that captivating competition- Strictly Come Dancing. And the winner stays the same , amazing, even if it is repeated. When there is a major sports event or series, regular programming is flushed down the toilet to cater for this, despite millions hating sport. A Sports channel would solve this.

To their credit, there are still some sitcoms, like Two and a half me, that see the early slot. And of course Survivior and the Amazing Race- they are very popular and placed in an early slot. But what about NCIS, Law and Order, Without a trace and many more? Surely there are more than enough prime time spots for them?
The excuse or lousy reason given is that these items were purchased on the condition that they are not broadcast during prime time. Sure thing. Why would you purchase programmes under such a condition? Furthermore, it is a fact that dozens of programmes purchased, were not broadcast within the time they should have been, and thus, are unable to be broadcast now. Millions wasted.What a bunch of brilliant people these are.
It was reported that many programmes are purchased through another company, who purchases them cheaply and sells them to the SABC at an inflated price. Obviously there are links to the board and this company.
Due to space constraints, I am not going into an massive study of the SABC here though. It would take pages....

There are some of us who are only lucky to only get the four stations (SABC1-3 and E-TV). We have no say over the running or missuse of the public broadcaster.Some of us pay the license fee, many more don't. With the 1% tax, they will have much more income as tax payers will pay, whether they like it or not and the poor will not have to pay as millions don't pay tax.

Now, the the SABC income will be incredible, but do we really buy into the promise of better programming...hell no. We know the money will find pockets and holes to hide in and the government will still need further tax payers money to bail them out.....we just have to look at other state run enterprises to have proof of that- SA Airways, Eskom....all badly run...despite billions of Rands in funding, they run an a gigantic loss. How will the SABC differ with a new massive cash injection?

Privatise them, let them get a real board of directors and I am sure we will see a turn around. Make them asnwer for misuse and pay the price when they do.
Until then, the taxpayer will throw their hard earned money into the government's shredder and see no benifit from it at all.