THE SABC HAS NO MONEY!
That is the bottom line and to understand the full extent of the problem (well...not really but it gives you an idea), check out the IOL article "SABC debt may sink top programmes" !
The Problem:
- SABC has no money to pay production houses and as a result the producers can't pay their crews, actors, writers, staff and now some of the production houses are laying off staff and some are on the brink of closing down.
- Due to all the problems with non-payment, the producers of SABC shows have come together and formed a Producers' Coalition that would, on behalf of all the member production houses, communicate and negotiate with the public broadcaster about the status of payments etc. - On 12 April 2009, the SABC promised that they'd be able to pay their debts but now, apparently, they've even stopped communicating with the Producers about the outstanding payments.
- I don't need to tell you about Muvhango's troubles with the SABC because they are well documented by The Sowetan.
- 7de Laan could only manage to pay their cast & crew 80% of their salaries.
- SABC's cashcow Generations (or rather Morula Pictures) doesn't have a production contract nor a contract number with the broadcaster & as a result they can't invoice them, which means for the past 2-4 months, the producers have been financing the production of the soap from their own pockets.
- To force the SABC to pay, Endemol had to resort to withholding tapes of new Isidingo episodes! (I think they must all do this)
Endemol has decided to stop shooting as they had to use their overdraft facility to finance Isidingo's production and now can't afford to get into more debt.
......and the list goes on. The total amount owed by SABC is estimated around R40 million.
"All these companies formed a coalition and we started talking to them through this coalition. And we were fine with that. But now we have individuals coming to us demanding payments as well, and we can't have that.
Secondly, there are companies whose invoices do not tally with what is in the contracts. These things must be sorted out first before we can make payments," said Kganyago.
I mean, wth? You owe people money and when they ask for it you use words like "we can't have that"?? And now all of a sudden invoices don't tally? Please just own up, be open and negotiate payment terms qha.
What confuses me more is that if both Isidingo and Generations are SABC owned entities, why should the production companies be the ones to "struggle" like this??
What also makes this horrible is that since these belong to SABC, other broadcasters who have money, maybe MNET (since I pay them over R6000 a year) or ETV can't step in and just take over the shows and that sucks! It really should teach us as people, the importance of owning our ideas.
The Writers' Guild has joined forces with the Independent Producers' Organisation because they are also affected by the non-payments so they're meeting tomorrow afternoon to discuss plans to go picketing to "hopefully" get the government to intervene with this financial crisis.
DSTV-less readers, if you see a BLACK SCREEN with no pictures/sounds, at least you'll know why.
*sigh*
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