The South African public should focus on the positive work the SABC has done, particularly in growing the local production industry, the corporation said on Monday.

"We have contributed a lot and no-one is saying that we have done so much," SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told Sapa.

"We as the SABC have developed that industry (of local production houses)."

He said a few years ago, there were about 20, mostly "white-owned" production houses. Now there were about 400, he said.

"We went out of our way to make sure we empowered... We are doing a lot of good work for the industry."

It was a "contradiction" that the public perception was that the SABC did not care about the industry or jobs losses, since the corporation had put these people into employment.

"We have put so much money and... content in local hands."

Kganyago said when the industry had a lot of revenue it had decided to share it and had sponsored a lot of the training and seminars for producers.

Now that the broadcaster was in "the financial situation we find ourselves in, we have grown the industry so much it will be affected in one way or another".

He said despite the SABC having done all this work, the public and media chose to "concentrate on these smaller bumps".

Kganyago said the relationship between the corporation and independent producers was "very cordial. We sit and talk about these issues".

He said sometimes the two parties agreed and sometimes they disagreed.

"If we are agreeing about everything, why would we be meeting?"

Kganyago said the SABC was working on reducing payments it owed to production houses month-by-month.

He said besides payment, the two parties were in continuous talks about many other issues.

On Monday, the Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC) said the SABC was demanding fines of up to R100 000 from independent producers for alleged "lost assets".

"Seemingly random fines of up to R100 000 are being imposed on producers for alleged lost assets," said the coalition, which represents various producers, writers and union members, in a statement.

It said part of signing off on a completed production was that the SABC sent an asset controller to check that everything brought for a production, like sets, props and wardrobes were accounted for.

The TVIEC said there appeared to only be one asset controller for all commissioned productions. This, the coalition said, was causing delays of months and even years before productions were signed off.

Until this was done, "final payment for that production is withheld... Now production companies are also facing bizarre claims that vast amounts of assets are missing when the controller eventually does her checks".

The coalition said the industry had even photographed assets to prove they were accounted for.

However the "SABC seems unwilling to engage over the matter. They seem intent on withholding money from production houses as a matter of course... It is clearly a ruse to alleviate the SABC's cashflow crisis at the cost of the independent production sector."

Kganyago said the two parties were "engaging" on the matter.

"It doesn't help going to put it out in the public domain."

He said an asset register was needed.

"If those assets are there, they must show they are there. We have to make sure. We have to account for those assets... to the auditor general."

Sapa