Reports in South Africa stated that South Africa Broadcasting Corp (SABC) was seeking another financial bailout from the government and that the broadcaster had a Rand 282 million ($15.4 million) shortfall.

South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper spelt out the alleged shortfall saying that SABC would lose Rand 2.5 billion by the end of the year.

SABC’s financial dilemma is partly as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and because the broadcaster has had to cancel plenty of money-spinning shows popular with the public – and advertisers.

However, SABC put out a statement saying that the newspaper reports were “inaccurate and misleading”. The broadcaster added: “Since it received its bailout allocation from treasury, the SABC has restored a healthy working capital cycle aligned with the cashflow forecasting models.”

“The article states that the corporation will [on May 11th] appear before parliament’s portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies to request additional funding. This is not true,” said the SABC in its statement.

“The SABC has not requested any additional funding, and has no meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the portfolio committee on this matter. In fact, the SABC will be presenting its 2020/2021 corporate plan to the portfolio committee on Wednesday, 13 May,” it added.

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