The SABC said it had begun implementing its payment schedule and planned to have weekly meetings with representatives of the industry to keep communication open.

It said that on average it had been paying R600-million to its vendors and suppliers in the production industry in the last four months and was committed to resolving the problems raised.

"The SABC remains committed to resolving these issues with the TVIEC, as content is the core of our business dependent on our partners in the local production industry and the converse also true."

The march, dubbed "the TV crisis march" comes as producers complain about slow or non-payment of work.

In May the SABC said it needed almost R2-billion to get out of financial trouble.

At meeting with the board on Monday, Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda was briefed on the myriad problems facing the SABC which included salary negotiations with unions, differences between board members and the filling of key vacant positions.

These include the post of chief executive officer and head of news.

Throwing its weight behind Thursday's march, the Young Communist League said it would use the opportunity to also call for the dissolution of the board.

The board has been deflecting criticism since its appointment by former president Thabo Mbeki.

"All these crises at the SABC — it is happening under the board's noses — so for us, if the board goes, it will accord everyone an opportunity to deal with these problems," said spokesperson Castro Ngobese.

The league also wants the SABC to revise its local content programming, saying it was unhappy with the high ratio of US-produced programmes and that it did not run enough programmes that fell in line with the country's "development agenda".

The Congress of SA Trade Unions-aligned Communication Workers Union agreed, saying it was not happy with the company screening locally produced soap operas that model Western values it considers negative.

It supported the TVIEC protest, saying: "We shall not allow any employee in the ICT sector to be either underpaid, exploited based on their employment status/contracts that in some instances render these workers vulnerable and prone to abuse by management.

"We condemn with the strongest possible terms, the non-payment and delayed payments of workers by the SABC."

Meanwhile, TVIEC invited the public to join an SMS campaign to tell the SABC "what people think of the current crisis and the state of the broadcaster's programming".

Messages costing 50c and sent to 31970, with text starting with the word "TV", would be forwarded to authorities at the SABC, they said.

The TVIEC consists of the Independent Producers Organisation, SA Screen Federation, The Producers Alliance, Documentary Filmmakers Association, Writers Guild of South Africa and the Creative Workers Union.

They plan to march to the SABC in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Sapa

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