Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Treasury have seen the SABC’s proposed 24-Hour news channel business plan, and sent it packing.

Gordhan called it a “vanity project”, and went on to say that now was not the time for such projects, citing “fiscal constraints”.

This is not the time for vanity projects. [The SABC] must take credible measures to stop wasteful and ill-considered projects and expenditure.

Gordhan’s comments were in response to a Parliamentary question from Cope’s Juli Kilian. He said that the SABC had failed to “cut staff costs in line with a target set in the terms of agreement for a R1,4 billion government loan guarantee granted by the Treasury in 2009,” – which probably surprises nobody, really.

According to a report, staff costs are now sitting at almost R2 billion:

Although the SABC had committed to slashing the wage bill by R283 million by 2013, with a target of R1,476 billion for the past financial year, its staff costs had become bloated to R1,753 billion.

Gordhan said the broadcaster was aligning its corporate plan, which included its budget, to reflect the loan guarantee targets, but had not submitted it to the Treasury.

SABC spokesman, Kaizer Kganyago, remained defiant, and probably hadn’t got the memo yet, saying that according to him, everything was on track.

[Source: IOL]