Leading the SABC with Nomsa Chabeli

Nomsa Chabeli, CEO of the SABC, joins Colin Iles for a Henley Leadership Series conversation on stepping into one of South Africa's most exposed public institutions. The sharpest thread running through it: she took the job knowing it could end her career, because as the SABC's board chair told her before she accepted, neither of them would be remembered for what they had achieved until now, only for what happens to the SABC.

The glass cliff decision: why Chabeli took a job that could damage her career

Chabeli was approached for the CEO role while thriving at MTN, running successful campaigns inside the country's number one telco brand, so the call came as a shock rather than an ambition fulfilled. She describes wrestling with the "glass cliff" phenomenon, the pattern in which women get appointed to lead institutions that are already struggling, and weighing that against state-owned enterprise leaders who typically "come out the other side damaged." Before joining, she had a direct conversation with SABC board chair Dr Khathutshelo "Khathu" Ramukumba, who told her plainly that neither of them would be remembered for their prior achievements, only for what happens to the SABC. What ultimately moved her, she says, was the sense that this was a one-time chance to either fail spectacularly or leave a legacy for an institution she believes still plays a critical role in preserving South Africa's democracy.

Not CEO material: the gender bias Chabeli faced on day one

Chabeli says one of the first messages she received on joining, from a union she declined to name, told her outright that she was "not CEO material," because the role was implicitly seen as male. She notes that marketers rarely become CEOs in the first place, since finance is the natural pipeline to the top job while CMOs typically stay CMOs. She is only the second female CEO in the SABC's 89-year history, and leaned on both formal and informal support networks, including relationships built during her years at MultiChoice and mentorship from female leaders inside and outside the industry, to treat not knowing something as a solvable problem rather than a disqualifying one.

Three things keeping the CEO awake at night: switch-off, funding and the stalled Bill

Chabeli names three immediate, existential pressures facing the SABC. The first is the analog television switch-off, originally scheduled for 31 March, which would cut off an estimated 4.5 million households still relying on analog signal before the set-top box rollout has reached its target, translating directly into lost audience and lost commercial revenue. The second is the outdated funding model set by the 1999 Broadcasting Act: only 4% of SABC income comes from a government grant, 83% from commercial activity, and TV license fees, meant to fund the public mandate, go largely unpaid, with an evasion rate above 80%. The third is the SABC Bill, meant to replace that 1999 Act with a modern regulatory regime, which has been withdrawn by the Minister of Communications and is currently stalled. She notes the BBC faces a similar funding crisis as viewing habits shift away from appointment television.

Horizon 1, 2 and 3: how a five-year CEO term forces short-term wins

Chabeli explains that SABC's strategy runs on a McKinsey-style Horizon 1/2/3 framework, choosing near-term, achievable wins that build momentum toward longer-term structural change. She contrasts the SABC's five-year CEO contracts with private-sector tenures that can run 20-plus years, arguing public institutions rarely get the sustained runway a strategy needs, since a strategy is "not a sprint, it's a marathon." Her clearest short-term win was the SABC's election coverage, which she says showcased the organisation's languages, platforms, and its newsroom, the biggest on the African continent. SABC Plus grew from a target of 500,000 users to more than 850,000 by the end of March 2025, proof of the momentum she says keeps staff bought into a longer-term vision she describes as planting "the seeds of the tree whose shade we will never sit under."

Archives, radio and a direct-to-home platform: where Chabeli sees the SABC in five years

Chabeli sees the SABC pivoting from a three-to-five-channel linear broadcaster into a multiplatform media company, anchored by a direct-to-home platform that would remove the channel-capacity constraint currently stopping SABC from acquiring or airing more content even when it has the budget to do so. She points to the SABC's archive, the country's greatest historical repository in her telling, now being digitised for a future licensing and remake revenue stream. On radio, SABC holds roughly 70% of the South African market and has grown its revenue share from around 30% to 35% in the past year, with four of Africa's biggest radio stations under its brand. She also raises BRICS partnerships, including exchanges with Chinese counterparts on broadcast technology, as a route to exporting African content rather than only importing global platforms.

Has Chabeli ever been pressured by politicians to slant the news?

Chabeli says no. Editorial decisions, she states, sit entirely with the newsroom, not the CEO's office, and her own role touches the commercial and people side of the news division but not its editorial content. She acknowledges the SABC will always be a contested space given its reach, more than 27 million South Africans engage with its radio, television or news daily, but says protecting the newsroom's independence is part of the legacy she wants to leave.

Is the SABC financially sustainable right now?

Not under its current funding model, according to Chabeli. Only 4% of SABC's income comes from a government grant and 13% from TV license fees, a stream undermined by an evasion rate above 80%, leaving 83% of income dependent on commercial activity. She argues the fix is not a bailout but government properly funding the SABC's public mandate, which would remove the financial threat she says currently keeps her awake at night.