LEADERSHIP
Steering the SABC to
INDEPENDENCE As the CFO of the SABC, Yolande van Biljon is part of the team responsible for steering the embattled public broadcaster back to financial sustainability. She chatted to Victoria Williams about some of the challenges she’s facing on her journey to independence.
Y
olande van Biljon joined the SABC as CFO in June 2018, motivated by the opportunity to improve the financial management of the public broadcaster. “Some people are just made for these sorts of roles. I’m just not suited to working at a commercial entity. At the SABC I can contribute to our society at large. The SABC reaches half of our population on any given day,” she says. Despite her affinity for the role, she describes her first two years at the broadcaster as demanding, as the organisation struggled to overcome a legacy of governance failures and maladministration. In 2019, this legacy left the SABC battling to pay suppliers and staff, and the SABC faced a real chance of “black on air”. Government stepped in with a R3.2 billion bailout, paid in tranches and earmarked for pre-defined categories of utilisation. The funds enabled the broadcaster to pay its outstanding bills and initiate its turnaround. Despite this tough time, Yolande believes that she has seen more wins than losses during her tenure at the SABC. One of these wins includes seeing a performance-management culture rolled out within the organisation. She is also part of the executive team executing a plan to restore the organisation’s sustainability and remove dependence on state bailouts. Nonetheless,
44
CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA
there is still much work to be done to revitalise the 84-year-old broadcaster. “The current business model is outdated. We are about ten years behind when it comes to digital transformation,” she adds. The SABC’s turnaround plan has three main elements: dealing with the legacy and governance issues; looking at regulatory and policy issues, and commercial and operational issues. This plan also includes disposing of non-core assets like under-utilised property to generate cash. Improving financial governance has been a major focus for Yolande: “Our goal is not just to attain a clean audit but to create the right culture and systems to entrench good corporate governance.” The turnaround plan has been successful so far. According to an opinion piece by SABC group CEO Madoda Mxakwe published in the Sunday Times this past August, the SABC board and executive team have already achieved over 50 percent of the aims of the turnaround plan, in just nine months of the 36-month implementation period. The broadcaster reduced its losses from R1.7 billion in 2017 to R444 million in 2019.
Requirements of the role In her position, Yolande also oversees supply chain management, logistics and real estate for the SABC.
