I have been advised by the SABC as follows:
1. Yes, any individual and or company who receives payment from the SABC requires to be registered with the SABC either as an independent contractor through the payroll system or as a vendor and as a vendor they need to adhere to Treasury regulations. No actor that claims repeat fees from the SABC can be paid without being registered as an independent contractor.
2. Yes, the SABC uses a payroll system which has all the details of the individuals loaded on their artist number and claims are verified against this in the standard payroll system.
3. This is part of the SABC’s governance and internal controls processes. The SABC needs to verify the validity of the claim to ensure that a fraudulent claim is not submitted by an individual, getting hold of and using, the artist’s unique number. The two numbers (ID and artist number) are vetted by TV and then send to the SABC’s corporate shared services payroll to process payment (against the artist number).
4. No, the SABC’s verification process is not causing unnecessary delays in processing of repeat fees. The documents are necessary to verify claims, i.e. it is a governance and internal control measure. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure has not been incurred as a result of the verification processes.
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure has been incurred due to interest levied on late or non-payment of service providers. This was not because of the verification processes but because the SABC had no money to pay its service providers. During FY2018/19 an amount of R81m was viewed as fruitless and wasteful expenditure owing to interest and penalties levied on late / non-payment
MS. STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS, MP
MINISTER