Publications
Partners
Cape Town – The SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng says "SABC is rocking all the way" and that soon "we’ll even beat MultiChoice", vowing that the SABC will have "better pictures" than DStv when South Africa switches from analogue to digital broadcasting.
The SABC’s chief operating officer (COO) spoke at the latest The New Age breakfast briefing in Fourways, telling the audience that "SABC is rocking all the way" and that "SABC is superb".
Motsoeneng was adamant that "SABC is not going to collapse". He again used the platform, with a lot of physical finger-pointing, to slam South African journalists and politicians for the "propaganda" they’re making out of reporting on and mentioning alleged irregular and wasteful expenditure at the SABC. "Some people they are making propaganda out of that," said Motsoeneng.
Speaking at the latest breakfast briefing and sitting next to the minister of communications, Faith Muthambi on the stage, Motsoeneng said SABC viewers will get SABC channels that have better image quality once the long-delayed switch-over happens from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT).
"The picture that you see on television will be better pictures across the board. Whether you’re from QwaQwa, whether you’re from Venda, you’ll see everything the same. The pictures will be okay. We’ll even beat that MultiChoice," said Motsoeneng to audience laughter.
'People within SABC they’re very happy'
"SABC is not going to collapse," admonished Motsoeneng. "When you go to SABC, people within SABC they’re very happy. Because today they know that they are getting paid. They also know that if they do well, the company is doing well, we also reward them. We give them bonus," said Motsoeneng.
"For the first time we have put more than R600m to put on local content. That shows the growth of the SABC and the sustainability of the organisation."
"There is this notion that when you pay TV licence, you are paying the salaries of the employees of the organisation. When you pay TV licence you pay for content. So that we are able to contribute to producing content," said Motsoeneng.
'SABC will never collapse under this leadership'
"Let me come to the propaganda of some people, who always mislead the country about the SABC," said Motsoeneng.
"If you are saying SABC is collapsing, which means you always you are collapsing where you are, now. Not the SABC. And the SABC will never collapse under this leadership. I just want to clear that. We have put a good strategy to deal with issues," said Motsoeneng.
"We need to ask the question: Who is the public? Because always people are saying the views of the public. The public are not happy about the SABC. The fact of the matter. Those people who are competing with the SABC, they are not happy because they see SABC is doing well."
Commercial archives
"Generations is doing well now. Doing very, very well now, Generations. When you talk about commercial archives, there is no way where we can’t licence commercial archives. How are we going to pay those actors? How are we going to pay the production house if we don’t licence to other broadcasters?” said Hlaudi.
"That is business of all broadcasters. If you see the soapies that people are complaining about, those soapies from international, what you call it? It’s commercial archives. We also get licence from those broadcasters to broadcast those soapies or dramas. So if you don’t have knowledge, don’t deal with these issues."
