Johannesburg – Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams will meet the SABC board and labour unions following the public broadcaster’s commencement of a process to retrench more than 300 employees.
Ndabeni-Abrahams reiterated her position that she was against the planned job cuts at the corporation.
The minister’s spokesperson, Mish Molakeng, told Sunday World that Ndabeni- Abrahams would continue to engage the parties at the SABC.
He added that the minister has consistently maintained that the process to turn around the SABC must be consultative, fair and just.
“The minister has publicly stated that she is not in support of the retrenchment of employees at the SABC. She will soon meet with the board and unions to assist in finding a lasting solution between the parties,” he said.
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The SABC announced last week that it had concluded the section 189 process to reduce its headcount by 303 employees, which was half of the 600 redundancies initially projected.
This week, the public broadcaster informed staff of the progress of retrenchments and sent those affected letters indicating that their employment will be terminated by the end of next month. SABC group executive of human resources Mojaki Mosia notified workers that the corporation had begun a transition into the new structure.
The workers were also informed via SMS to look out for vacancies that were advertised internally on Wednesday.
“To enable a smooth transition, we have requested all employees who have received letters to provide us with their … decision ,” said Mosia.
The unions have vowed to continue fighting the retrenchments and have threatened to strike next week. On Friday, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) wrote to SABC group chief operations officer Ian Plaatjie notifying him that its members would embark on a strike on Wednesday.
CWU general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said the SABC had said 290 positions would be affected by retrenchments during the consultation process.
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“Despite the substantial disputes on the subject matter, the SABC was requested to provide a list of the 290 workers that are affected. To date, we have not received the list. We have heard through the media that the SABC talks about 303 workers contrary to what was presented at the consultation meeting,” he said.
“CWU has resolved to resume its strike action on January 20. We plead with management not to intimidate our members, non-unionised members and freelancers who are willing to join the strike.
“We commit to peaceful protest, using legitimate and legal means to persuade you to change the stance on retrenchments and privatisation of the SABC,” said Tshabalala.
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