Chairperson, hon members, I would like to use this opportunity to speak about one of the least-considered consequences of the crisis at the SA Broadcasting Corporation. The mandate of the SA Broadcasting Corporation, as the public broadcaster, directly relates to the protection and promotion of our diverse cultural heritage. To this end, we pay television licences, and through this Parliament we have approved additional taxpayer money to keep the SA Broadcasting Corporation afloat.
What has happened over the course of the past year is that the SA Broadcasting Corporation has systematically failed to pay local production companies for the content they have made. This alone has forced many of these local producers to the brink of bankruptcy.
In the aftermath of the SA Broadcasting Corporation's shenanigans earlier this year, there has now been a radical reduction in the SA Broadcasting Corporation's expenditure on locally produced content. Not only does this directly lead to a massive increase in foreign - often, poor quality - content on the airwaves, but it also threatens to decimate the local creative industries.
Many thousands of artists, performers, technical crew and businesspeople will lose their income, and the country stands to lose a significant chunk of the domestic industry that is truly committed to South African cultural heritage. This is a tragedy and the equivalent of the cultural genocide ... [Inaudible.] [Time expired.] [Laughter.]