AGM reveals BBC’s ‘insolvent’ state

The crisis-ridden Black Business Council (BBC) held its annual general meeting (AGM) this week and informed its members of its “insolvent” status.

The meeting, said the BBC, was characterised by a “spirit of robustness, courtesy, consensus seeking, frankness” and revealed that the organisation’s liabilities far exceed its assets. The organisation’s AGM document, including its financial report, which City Press has seen, said it incurred a net loss of more than R1.5m for the year ending February 2017.

As at February 2017, the BBC had total liabilities of R6.2m, compared with assets of R3.6m, which means that its liabilities exceeded its assets by R2.6m, making it technically insolvent, which means the business lobby could struggle to pay its bills at some point.

On the same date, the BBC had an accumulated loss of almost R2.6m, up from an accumulated loss of just more than R1mat the end of February 2016.

The report, drawn up by SizweNtsalubaGobodo, indicated that at the time the organisation had R4.5 million tax and other debt, which was made up of unpaid pay as you earn tax, unemployment insurance fund contributions, VAT and a further income tax liability of more than R600 000.

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City Press understands the organisation recently defaulted on its payment plan to the SA Revenue Service, which led to a meeting between the parties recently.

The AGM had been postponed on two previous occasions.

“Radical economic transformation is fundamental to our economic growth as a country, and we therefore will persist the agenda forward under the new leadership of the President of the Republic, Cyril Ramaphosa, who has supported the endeavours of the BBC even under his former role as deputy president of South Africa,” the BBC AGM acting president’s message says.

“Let us stop assassinating each other and discrediting the name and vision of BBC in main. We must behave like business people and not politicians. Time and focus must be in our blood,” the message added.

Two of the organisation’s top leaders have been entangled in allegations of receiving trip sponsorship benefits from ABSA, meant for the organisation in its personal capacity, without organisational processes being followed. A source said the matter had been referred to a subcommittee to probe.

The BBC said it was tightening its memorandum of incorporation to strengthen internal governance and compliance measures and review its brand equity and institutional framework.