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SABC chiefs sacked for hiding a multimillion-rand profit-share transaction BY Ronelle Snyders
SABC chief operating officer Ian Plaatjies and video entertainment CEO Merlin Naicker misled the board.
Two SABC executives have been fired after a disciplinary process found them guilty of trying to conceal an advertising profit-sharing agreement with technology company Discovery Digital.
The agreement with Discovery Digital was made in relation to the public broadcaster’s streaming platform, TelkomONE, now called SABC Plus.
SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo confirmed to City Press that Ian Plaatjies, chief operating officer of the group, and Merlin Naicker, chief executive of video entertainment, had been sacked by the board.
Plaatjies and Naicker were suspended in February following a legal opinion from the law firm Werksmans.
Sales CEO Reginald Nxumalo resigned before he could be suspended for his role in the deal.
Executive committee misguided
Werkmans said the three hid important information from the executive committee before the agreement was signed in 2022. They allegedly failed to disclose that Discovery Digital will be paid 7,5% of advertising revenue in addition to the R35 million annual fee to manage the SABC Plus platform.The executives were found to have misled the committee when they said the SABC would get 100% of the advertising revenue.
The profit-sharing agreement only came to light when the SABC’s head of the legal department Ntuthuzelo Vanara questioned a clause in the contract. However, by that time, the agreement had already been signed.
The Werkmans report comes after an internal audit by the SABC found that the three executives had hidden parts of the agreement. It also found the three did not act in the best financial interests of the public broadcaster.
SABC’s cash flow challenges
The agreement with Discovery Digital has been signed as the public broadcaster struggles to exist as a viable business.In August 2023, it was revealed that the SABC had failed to record a profit in almost 10 years. Yolande van Biljon, CFO of the SABC, warned in June 2023 that the broadcaster could not keep up with operating costs and risk going into business rescue.
The memo also predicted a loss of R1 billion for the 2022/23 financial year.
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