The SABC has determined that the broadcaster breached its own policies and practices over a paid interview with social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.
According to News24, the SABC's editorial committee met to consider the alleged payment of R149,000, which had yet to be received from the department, in return for the interview broadcast on December 7 and 8, 2017, on chat show "Real Talk With Anele".
"The SABC does not charge for interviews, and this was a breach of organisational practice. We do solicit sponsorship for programmes [that are] part of a marketing campaign to communicate departmental or other client programmes or policies."
It said there was a breakdown in "internal controls and processes" with regard to the interview.
"SABC did not comply with its own editorial policies on sponsorship of programmes, which requires that the sponsor's association with the programme has to be stated clearly, both before and after the programme. In this case, this was not done."
As a result, the SABC will soon publish the new draft editorial policy and ensured that there would be no "grey areas" with respect to the sponsorship of programmes.