This PSL/SuperSport/SABC thing must end now, it’s gone on for too long. Not as long as the civil servant’s strike but damn near close!
First casualty, Mr Robert Marawa. The poor oke’s sin? Interviewing the CEO of SuperSport Imtaz Patel on his Metro FM (SABC owns Metro) show about the whole saga the day after interviewing PSL chairman Irvin Khoza and SABC Group CEO Dali Mpofu. Well at least that was the reason he was given by the powers-that-be. My first thought? Journalistic uhm, integrity? You remember him? Ethics, balanced reporting, get many sides of the story, that sort of old-fashioned stuff that kept the likes of Drum going in its heyday? Word is, for a while the SABC has been looking at getting rid of the multi-award-winning sports presenter because he works for both SABC and SuperSport. Anyway, what do I know, I’m just a blogger.
So the other day they had Irvin Khoza telling the world how much his group was getting paid for making this deal happen. Now understand this is a billion rand issue and someone is getting paid no matter what. Figures that have been thrown about hover around R30 million for each of Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung and others involved in putting this thing together. That’s not a lot of money mind you: commission on a billion amounts to hundreds of millions of rand. The issue some people had was that these gents were conducting normal day-to-day business as expected of them in their PSL hats, and so they had no rights to earn a commission on the deal as if they were acting as independent contractors. As far as I know, they ARE independent contractors to the PSL; they only work full-time on their respective clubs, not for the PSL. Even if I’m wrong, I know in publishing for instance, that eve full-time staff whose jobs don’t include selling, that bring in advertising from time to time, also get commission from those sales they make.
Business is business and someone will make money here. And it’s not like they are getting rewarded with government, and hence public funds. This is SuperSport shareholders’ money. It reminds me of the R7 million controversy that had SAFA president Molefi Oliphant in a perpetual spin of denial and acceptance of the money for his role in bringing the World Cup to Mzansi. Again, Oliphant was entitled to that money, or even more! Do you know how much it costs to stage a World Cup? Everyone wants a piece, and for someone to contribute towards bringing it to their country as did those gents including Danny Jordaan, it took years of toil, endless trips and possibly lots of “gifts” to FIFA executives all over the planet. Take the money I say! Take it and run. No casualties here.
First casualty, Mr Robert Marawa. The poor oke’s sin? Interviewing the CEO of SuperSport Imtaz Patel on his Metro FM (SABC owns Metro) show about the whole saga the day after interviewing PSL chairman Irvin Khoza and SABC Group CEO Dali Mpofu. Well at least that was the reason he was given by the powers-that-be. My first thought? Journalistic uhm, integrity? You remember him? Ethics, balanced reporting, get many sides of the story, that sort of old-fashioned stuff that kept the likes of Drum going in its heyday? Word is, for a while the SABC has been looking at getting rid of the multi-award-winning sports presenter because he works for both SABC and SuperSport. Anyway, what do I know, I’m just a blogger.
So the other day they had Irvin Khoza telling the world how much his group was getting paid for making this deal happen. Now understand this is a billion rand issue and someone is getting paid no matter what. Figures that have been thrown about hover around R30 million for each of Irvin Khoza, Kaizer Motaung and others involved in putting this thing together. That’s not a lot of money mind you: commission on a billion amounts to hundreds of millions of rand. The issue some people had was that these gents were conducting normal day-to-day business as expected of them in their PSL hats, and so they had no rights to earn a commission on the deal as if they were acting as independent contractors. As far as I know, they ARE independent contractors to the PSL; they only work full-time on their respective clubs, not for the PSL. Even if I’m wrong, I know in publishing for instance, that eve full-time staff whose jobs don’t include selling, that bring in advertising from time to time, also get commission from those sales they make.
Business is business and someone will make money here. And it’s not like they are getting rewarded with government, and hence public funds. This is SuperSport shareholders’ money. It reminds me of the R7 million controversy that had SAFA president Molefi Oliphant in a perpetual spin of denial and acceptance of the money for his role in bringing the World Cup to Mzansi. Again, Oliphant was entitled to that money, or even more! Do you know how much it costs to stage a World Cup? Everyone wants a piece, and for someone to contribute towards bringing it to their country as did those gents including Danny Jordaan, it took years of toil, endless trips and possibly lots of “gifts” to FIFA executives all over the planet. Take the money I say! Take it and run. No casualties here.
Second possible casualty? Advocate Mpofu himself. Apart from the fact t
hat the ANC Youth League is calling for his resignation, he certainly needs a good look at his SABC Sport executive team. Before we even talk about the PSL rights which they lost, these are the same folks that again, let Marawa leave MTN Soccer Zone. What happened as soon as they did that? The once-popular Monday night football show not only lost hordes of viewers but they lost their primary sponsor as well. I don’t care how you feel about Marawa personally, but the man is bankable. To just let him go without a fight is just plain stupid. It is bad business. I’m not so sure Discovery will stick around to sponsor his former sports show on Metro, without the anchor.So, SABC Sport and Mpofu himself will have to answer to the SABC board as well as to Parliament as to HOW they could let this happen. Were they really caught napping? Were they basking in the “entitlement” trap, thinking the PSL automatically belongs to the public broadcaster? Evidence of this comes from the fact that they did not even submit a tender for the rights as requested. Only SuperSport, etv and Telkom did. Telkom is launching their own satellite TV service soon.
Or was it that the SABC simply could not afford the asking fee?
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