The SABC's dire financial straits forced it into a stark choice at the end of May - pay staff salaries or its municipal accounts.
It opted for salaries, and now owes the City of Johannesburg more than R13.5m. But the broadcaster may only have delayed the inevitable.
"I'm not sure how we are going to pay for salaries come end of June," SABC board chair Bongumusa Makhathini told the Sunday Times this week.
"We have also not maintained any of our infrastructure and a communication blackout is imminent. We anticipated Day Zero in March, but we have managed to stay on air until now."
The broadcaster also owes Sentech - a state-owned business that provides broadcasting signal distribution - about R317m, and the MultiChoice division SuperSport R208m.
Municipal spokesperson Stan Maphologela said the city was in discussions with the SABC about the debt, and there would be another meeting on Wednesday. For now, the lights would stay on in Auckland Park, he said.
Sentech spokesperson Milisa Kentane said the company had reached a payment agreement with the SABC, which the state broadcaster had so far honoured.
MultiChoice group executive for corporate affairs, Joe Heshu, said MultiChoice did not discuss contractual arrangements with broadcast partners in public, given their confidential nature.
Communications department spokesperson Nthabeleng Mokitimi-Dlamini said this week the department, as well as the National Treasury, was considering a R3.2bn guarantee application submitted by the SABC in March. This would allow it to borrow from commercial banks.
"The department is aware of the SABC's . overdue creditor payments and the need to meet their salary commitments."
She said the department had made available a technical team to assist the SABC in its application processes with possible lenders.
Makhathini said a number of investigations into the SABC by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and an internal audit unit had produced enough evidence to initiate civil litigation totalling more than R366m.
In 2017, former president Jacob Zuma signed a proclamation authorising the SIU to investigate maladministration at the SABC.
Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa extended the mandate to include a lucrative R185m security tender, which was allegedly irregularly awarded in 2017.
An interim SIU report seen by the Sunday Times shows evidence of irregularities in the awarding of eight contracts, ranging from R9.8m to R194m.
Makhathini said phase 2 of the SIU investigation, which is still to be completed, includes the SABC's arrangements to cover The New Age breakfast events, a security tender and the irregular payment of bonuses and 13th cheques to senior staff.
He said the SIU would also investigate irregular expenditure involving a R5m tax penalty and the validity of some tax clearance certificates.
SIU spokesperson Nazreen Pandor said: "Interim reports have been finalised and submitted to the presidency in respect of both proclamations.
"The investigation in both instances therefore is ongoing and will culminate in the president being issued with final reports," Pandor said.
Makhathini linked the recent attack on the SABC's chief audit executive, Thami Zikode, to the cleanup he and the board had instituted at the broadcaster.
Zikode survived a suspected assassination attempt when four men ambushed him while he was returning home on June 7.
"Zikode and his team have produced 180 forensic investigation reports which have led to many people going through disciplinary hearings," Makhathini said.
He confirmed that security had been beefed up for Zikode and his team.
This week police said they were still searching for three men in connection with the attack. One man, aged 37, was wounded at the time and is now under arrest. Police spokesperson Capt Mavela Masondo would not speculate on the motive for the attack.
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