AIRCO ‘fails to account’ for SABC royalties for past eight years

AIRCO chairperson Mandla Maseko says the association has not received a single complaint from its members in good standing.

An organisation responsible for collecting video royalties from the SABC has allegedly failed to present its financial statements to its members.

The Association of Independent Record Companies (AIRCO) has, for the past eight years, also neither elected directors nor appointed auditors.

Sunday World can further reveal that the company has also failed to submit its annual returns to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission due to its failure to hold an annual general meeting (AGM).

The last AGM took place eight years ago, according to an anonymous source.

“Even at that time, there were no financial statements. We asked for them, but the executive refused to present those statements,” the source alleged.

According to AIRCO’s constitution, an AGM must be held within six months after the close of the association’s financial year, on a date, time, and venue determined by the board of directors.

This requirement is supported by the Companies Act of 1998, which stipulates that a company must convene the AGM of its shareholders no more than 18 months after its date of incorporation.

AIRCO refutes allegations

Another source claimed that AIRCO does not even have members.

“AIRCO is just an ATM for certain individuals. It doesn’t even have members, which is why they’re not distributing the royalties. They’re not accountable to anyone,” said the source.

“So we ask ourselves, why is the SABC, which is already in financial distress, paying AIRCO? Who are the actual beneficiaries? Is the SABC colluding with AIRCO?

“It’s unfortunate that whenever we raise these concerns, we get blacklisted and our work gets blocked.”

Asked when the association last held the AGM, AIRCO chairperson Mandla Maseko said: “We have not received a single complaint from our members in good standing.

“These claims sound ingenious. It is our organisational culture that we engage with our members annually, in any form or nature, throughout the provinces.”

Maseko declined to comment when asked how many members belong to AIRCO. The SABC had not responded by the time of publication.