This is according to former SABC Contributing Editor Vuyo Mvoko who also revealed that the resources for the state broadcaster’s show Morning Live are also used to fund the controversial The New Age (TNA) Business Breakfast.
Mvoko was testifying at the SABC enquiry in Parliament on Monday alongside his colleagues who have been dubbed the ‘SABC 8’.
“What the SABC executives haven’t informed you about is that they have allowed SABC money to be used to build a rival channel ANN7,” said Mvoko.
“Morning Live resources get diverted to pay for the production costs of those TNA Breakfasts that you see.”
He revealed that none of the money made from selling tables during the breakfasts and the sponsorship goes to the SABC.
“Yet the money that the owners of TNA make, none of it, not a cent goes to the SABC. From the millions they make through sponsorships, to the tables they sell at those breakfasts they do not take any of that to the SABC. Except perhaps to the people who make things happen for them,” said Mvoko.
He said that the SABC spends between R200 000 and R500 000 to broadcast one of the TNA Breakfasts.
“We pay for the production costs, we pay for the presenters to be there, for all those people, that whole tribe that has to travel to Bloemfontein or to the Northern Cape to do those broadcasts. The owners of TNA don’t pay any of that money.
The controversial TNA Business Breakfasts are sponsored by Transnet, Telkom and Eskom who according to Mail & Guardian and City Press spend millions for each briefing.
It was reported that the Transnet paid R17.5million for 18 briefings between 2011 and 2012 while Eskom signed a R43million sponsorship deal in 2014 for a three-year period. Telkom is said to have spent R12million towards the briefing in the 2012/13 financial year.
Calls to the SABC and TNA Media went unanswered.
