SABC says no salaries by March
South Africa's cash-strapped public broadcaster on Tuesday warned it would be unable to pay its workers by March if it fails to secure a loan.
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) directors told lawmakers that the company requires three billion rand ($207 million) and that it had launched a process to lay off a third of its full-time employees.
By "February we might not even be able to pay full salaries. March is our day zero if nothing happens," board member Mathatha Tsedu told a committee of members of parliament.
The directors said the company had on Tuesday approached the labour arbitration agency to retrench 981 of its 3,370 staffers.
Another 1,200 of its 2,400 freelancers are also earmarked for dismissal.
SABC posted losses of 622 million rand ($45 million) in the financial year ending March 2018.
It projects that this will deepen to 803 million rand by the end of March next year.
"The threat of commercial insolvency is increasing quite significantly," said company CEO Madoda Mxakwe.
The company's financial troubles worsened during the tenure of its former chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, an ally of ex-president Jacob Zuma.
The SABC has three free-to-air television channels and 18 stations broadcasting in all of the country's 11 official languages.