"The union federation has also repeated several factual inaccuracies at the same time. The SABC Board therefore has a public duty to set the record straight," the statement said.

The SABC says that Cosatu's allegation that the public broadcaster does not have a strategy is "factually inaccurate". "The SABC is implementing an approved Turnaround Plan to ensure its financial sustainability, including dealing with the unfunded mandate.

"The Turnaround Plan is a product of a collaborative effort involving the SABC, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC), and National Treasury. 

"The plan is structured around enhancing revenue-generation as well as addressing the SABC’s main cost drivers such as:  employee compensation, content acquisition, signal distribution and digital migration," the statement said.

It also says that Cosatu's assertion that the public broadcaster has applied for another bailout is "not only factually inaccurate but misleading". 

It said that the department of communications asked the SABC to apply for additional funding from National Treasury in terms of regulations that "provide for allocation of additional funds through an adjustments budget to finance unforeseen and unavoidable expenditure within a financial year".

"Consequently, the corporation submitted a projected revenue short-fall of R1.5 billion to the DCDT due to the unforeseen Covid-19 impact on its financial position."

The SABC said that as part of its mandate to ensure that most South Africans are provided with "important and credible" information during the Covid-19 pandemic, it had displaced revenue-generating programming to "accommodate all public announcements and media briefings relating to the Covid-19 pandemic" without compensation.

The broadcaster reiterated its stance that Cosatu's call for its dissolution was legally baseless.

African News Agency