SABC employees left in lurch as salaries not paid

Staff at the beleaguered SABC woke up to a shocking realisation on Tuesday morning: their salaries had not been paid.

TimesLIVE has seen a notification from the Broadcasting, Electronic, Media & Allied Workers Union (Bemawu) stating they were aware of the non-payment. A staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed not receiving a salary.

In an official statement, the SABC said on Monday that non-payment of staff was due to technical glitch.

“The SABC would like to put on record that the technical error experienced this morning in the payment of staff salaries was due to problems experienced by the financial institution,” spokesperson Neo Momodu said.

The matter would be resolved “in a matter of hours”, Momodu said and staff would be paid by the end of the day.

The SAfm Twitter account also published a short update just before 7.30am offering hope to worried employees.

“SABC management has sought to assure its staff members that their salaries will be paid today. SABC management says there was a technical glitch on the side of the bank which resulted in salaries not been paid on time,” the tweet read.

A Bemawu official subsequently told TimesLIVE that he had been informed by a senior SABC official that the matter was resolved. The manager reiterated to the union official that it had been a technical glitch. 

This is a developing story.