[Editorial column] SABC woes, IPL glows

And the SABC’s troubles just keep on multiplying… Whether it’s R800 million or R1.8 million in the red, or a R2 billion short-term bailout versus R6 billion over the next five years, it’s making everyone hot under the collar. Naturally, management and board members, according to more than one news report, are not letting their organisation’s woes slow them down… and they’re sending out the wrong message by making first-class flights and staying at top hotels (except for the third board member who resigned recently). They should, instead, be setting an example. Clearly, the R175 000 that company secretary Thelma Melk has spent on travel - six overseas trips since October 2008 - is a drop in the ocean when compared with the R2 billion for which the broadcaster is begging, but management should set the tone, especially when the financial woes are having a domino effect on the livelihood of television producers, writers and artists, and resulting in sponsorships for events such as the Encounters documentary festival drying up. Yet management is not, as reported in Issa Sikiti da Silva’s story today, Molefe’s mission impossible to ‘exorcise’ SABC News.

On a happier note, the DFL Indian Premier League (IPL) ended with more than a few spectacular bangs last night, Sunday, 24 May 2009, and while there have been some problems, by and large the organisers, together with South Africa as host, have done an outstanding job. As a result, our reputation for staging large sporting events is intact. However, there have been rumbles regarding the marketing effort for the Confederations Cup and 2010. Naturally, we want both events to be exceptional, but the local organisers are following upon several local class acts (Rugby World Cup, Twenty20 World Cup and now the IPL) and perhaps, if they have not yet approached the organisers of these events to benefit from their experience, they would be wise to do so, and as often as they need to.

Last but not least, excitement is growing in leaps and bounds when it comes to the Seacom undersea cable (which has even joined Twitter as @SeacomLive), now in the final stretches of completion and which should be operational by the end of June, thus bringing much-needed international Internet bandwidth to Africa. Bizcommunity.com’s assistant editor Simone Puterman will be part of the media/ social media site-visit to Mtunzini landing station in KwaZulu-Natal later this week, so don’t forget to follow her tweets on Thursday 28 May!

Go go go, go Seacom, go!
The biz editorial team

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This column originally published 25 May 2009.