A substantial chunk of the R1.473 billion guarantee that communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda announced to bail out the SABC may end up in the hands of Digital Horizons, which is suing the broadcaster.
Digital Horizons, which specialises in building and developing outside broadcasting trucks, claims the SABC originally awarded it a tender worth R400 million for four such units. However, this was overturned by three past SABC non-executive directors, namely Khanyi Mkhonza, Andile Mbeki and Gloria Serobe, who insisted the contract be awarded to Sony.
“Our tender was the preferred bid,” says Digital Horizons CEO John Carvalho. “This was after adjudication by the CEO's committee (then Dali Mpofu) and three other committees, namely finance, technology and procurement. Then the three non-executive directors insisted on another ad hoc committee that also found for us. But for some reason that they have not justified, they overturned all these decisions and awarded the contract to Sony.”
In her responding affidavit, Mkhonza said the outside broadcasting trucks were needed to meet the SABC's obligations to Fifa for the 2010 World Soccer Cup. She contended that if these trucks were not delivered on time and to specification, then more than 20 million South Africans would not be able to watch the tournament.
However, Carvalho says he has letters from Fifa and its broadcasting arm, Host Broadcasting Services (HBS), stating that the SABC has no broadcasting contract with it.
“I have this in writing from them and I expect their affidavits to this effect quite soon,” he says.
HBS states on its Web site that it gathers all the feeds from the stadiums and then resells it to the various broadcasting companies throughout the world.
“There is a big difference between broadcasting rights, that is the right to broadcast the feed, and actually recording the matches,” Carvalho notes.
He adds that Sony has delivered three of the broadcasting trucks and the SABC has been paying for them. But, should his company win its case, then it could sue the SABC for the total cost of the contract, plus for other losses incurred.
Carvalho says the next court date is being discussed by the respective lawyers, but he hopes to have the case finalised by year-end.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago was not available for comment today, but has been refusing to comment on the issue due to the 'sub judice' court rule. This rule applies to influencing or predicting the outcome of a matter.
The Department of Communications has also yet to return calls.
Democratic Alliance MP Niekkie van den Burg says this matter is indicative of the overall lack of leadership that has a hampered the SABC.
“One must be very concerned about the SABC's ability to carry the broadcasting feed for the 2010 World Cup,” he comments.
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