Open letter to SABC Board Chairperson

Dear Ms Irene Charnley, Interim Chairperson of SABC Board

Kindly note that this is written to you on behalf of, and mandated by, the majority of unionised employees at the SABC, whatever their affiliation. Our administrators have included a confirmation widget for members to visibly confirm this letter.

Yesterday's march, attended by half of the union members at Auckland Park (we have an exact count, using our photos), with the other half caringly keeping our critical services going, to minimise financial impact. Should we have asked them to join us, it might have caused a break in transmission, and we did not want that right now.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• COSATU, FEDUSA, CWU, CWUSA, FXI, SOLA, TVIEC and others in the SOS Coalition has made it clear they do not endorse the new Interim Board, until further notice, and particularly because their nominees was ignored by a very hasty Parliament.
• The above means that the conduct of each board member will be monitored closely by the Shop Stewards of the above, as there is no clear endorsement from our federations.
• We fully realise that you were a practiced and skilled negotiator with the National Union of Mineworkers, another COSATU affilliate. This in no way should lead you to believe your conduct will now be under less scrutiny than that of any other board member.

OUR SERIOUS CONCERNS (The Unionised Staff of the SABC)

We are seriously concerned over the following events of the past two days:

1. Our chosen point of contact, the secretariat of the CWU Head Office, wrote a letter to the SABC, responding to an invitation for a meeting with your good selves.
2. The response politely, but clearly, declined your invitation, as it was on very short notice.
3. Notwitstanding this, the SABC still deemed it fit to invite some union members and junior officials to the meeting with you.
4. We now state, without ambiguity, that the two meetings you've had (with what the SABC may now describe as "with the unions"), was in fact unprocudural.
5. It's our understanding that the members that did attend, were there for information purposes only.
6. This perturbs us. You repeated to them the same words that the SABC EXCO have repeated to us Ad Nauseam for such a long time: "We only have 8.5%."

We are now very concerned that you seem not to understand us. Please therefore allow us to make ourselves very clear:

We know the SABC only left 8.5%" in our Salary Account.

We want the rest of our promised 12.2% to be returned by the individuals who removed it from our Salary Account.

They had NO right to raid our Salary Account. It is a worker's most treasured right - to be paid his agreed upon salary. Anything less is clearly frowned upon by the law authorities - so much so that heavy fines are imposed for short payments.

No amount of "economic hardship" can justify anyone taking money out of a worker's Salary Account. It is as taboo as robbing a grave.

We've allowed the SABC to open negotiations on this matter. In the interests of Good Faith bargaining, we've levelled a simple request - please safeguard our Salary Account for the future.

This would mean suspending all those who are suspected of having squandered the money in our Salary Account, to be investigated and procedurally charged - using the existing Audit Reports. If needed, they must be procecuted, and their assets attached for return of the money to our Salary Account.

Up to date, we have had no success with EXCO to get this legal request to ensure Good Faith bargaining fulfilled.

We now call upon you to please not meet with junior officials on an Ad Hoc basis.

Our elected Official point of contact is Comrade Gallant Roberts, the General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union.

Kindly extend a proper invitation to him - with a proper time period allowed - to enable us, via the CWU Secretariat (which has been democratically elected by us to co-ordinate) both at this plant and at the CWU HQ, to consolidate our agenda points properly.

We aim to input constructively, with the aims of safeguarding not only the future of the SABC, but the entire Broadcast Industry, which employs around 100 000 people.

The meeting, when it does happen, promises to clarify many things that have been muddied by haphazard meetings at short notice.



Our position remains one of Good Labour Relations

The Unionised Staff of the SABC, via the hand of the CWU Secretariat.