Dear Editor,
Everywhere you look you see News Channels reporting about the TV Crisis. But do people really understand what it is all about?
It's about people like me, who have worked in the TV Industry for 20 years and more. People, like me, who started at the bottom and through the years put in a huge amounts of work and creative energy to learn everything about the art of Television.
We sweated away at the SABC, putting our valuable skills accumulated through the years, into practice everyday. We stayed true to the art of television making, but around us the SABC was crumbling. We endured corruption, fraud, nepotism, wastefulness, dereliction of duty, unfair labour practices and favouritism. CEOs came and went, each promising us to put an end to all these things, each asking us to come forward with this information. No matter how many times we reported and provided proof about these issues, they were ignored and left to escalate.
The SABC invested in me many hours of training and I in turn invested all my skills. What did I get in return from the SABC? I had to watch our career paths came to a halt, as nepotism welcomed unqualified individuals into senior positions who knew nothing about the basics of television making.
Positions that should have been given to many of us that dedicated our lives to the art of television making. I had to watch our salaries remain the same (a pittance), while nepotism and favouritism catered for the salaries of unqualified and undeserving individuals who knew nothing about putting together a television programme.
Many, like me, when head-hunted by outside Production Houses, did not hesitate to resign from the SABC to join these outside Production Houses. These Production Houses offered us competitive salaries, career progression, creative freedom and recognition for our hard work.
The SABC robbed us of so many things during the years we worked for them, and now as employees of outside Production Houses we are being robbed of our jobs. Many of us have been retrenched due to the failure of the SABC to pay Production Houses for programmes that we have long delivered to them.
What are we to do? We have families to feed. Where are we supposed to find jobs with our specialised skills? The SABC has brought the Television Industry to its knees. Why are we being robbed of our right to work in the Television Industry? Why is the SABC not held accountable for causing so many job losses?
The fact is that the SABC is rotten to the core and until all the rotten apples (general managers, senior managers, managers and commissioning editors) are flushed out of the SABC, nothing will change.
The public pays and has a right to watch informative, good quality and creative television. It's about time that we all (public and media) stand up and demand the right to deliver and watch informative, good quality and creative television. If we don't, the SABC will continue to shove their bad television down our throats.
The SABC broadcasts bad television because they have lost all their skilled workers and it is time that we, the skilled workers, deserve to have the good paying jobs at the SABC to ensure that the public get the good quality and creative television that they pay for.
Help us get our jobs back.
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.