The SABC insists that it will broadcast the remaining matches of Bafana Bafana’s crucial 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) despite a bold declaration from the SA Football Association last week that all future international football matches involving national teams will not be broadcast on any of the public broadcaster’s platforms.
The two cash-strapped entities have been at each other’s throats in public after Bafana’s home match against the Seychelles on Saturday was not broadcast on SABC channels.
Safa said it failed to strike a deal with the SABC because the public broadcaster made a “discourteous” offer for the broadcast rights.
SABC chief operating officer Chris Maroleng confirmed on Monday that Safa put R110m value on the broadcast rights while the public broadcaster offered just R10m.
SABC acting group executive for sports Renee Williams said the public broadcaster is relying on what she called a “survival clause” with Safa after their initial contract ended in April.
“The survival clause obliges all parties to make sure they deliver to all its obligations even though there’s a termination date on the contract‚” said Williams.
“We recognize that we did pass our obligation in terms of paying Safa the total amount of money which we did in September. We paid them the full amount of the money.
Williams argued that the SABC still had two Bafana matches to broadcast‚ including the one against Seychelles and Nigeria in November.
“That has been our dispute with Safa to say that there is a survival clause and we’ve met our obligations and we require that you meet your obligations.
“We are still of the opinion that they do owe us those two matches.”
The long-standing relationship between Safa and SABC appears to be over for good but Williams said the public broadcaster is still optimistic a solution can be found going forward.
“We could not see eye to eye. But from our perspective legally we had a stand and that is why our crew was on standby to flight the match‚” said Williams.
Maroleng also confirmed that the Bafana return match against the Seychelles in Victoria on Tuesday will be broadcast live on SABC.
