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Normal TV viewers and ordinary consumers in South Africa are largely clueless about the massive, imminent and far-reaching change coming when South African television switches from analogue to digital broadcasts and digital terrestrial television (DTT).
You can squarely blame the South African government for the digital television information disaster and yet another FAILED GOVERNMENT CONTRACT.
Roy Padayachie, the minister of communications, told parliament's portfolio committee on communications on Tuesday that the government's marketing and information campaign for DTT or actually the lack thereof in South Africa is a ''serious issue'' and that ''everybody is beginning to notice''. The department is supposed to spearhead and lead the DTT process, but South Africa is lagging behind.
''If you go out there, very few people really understand what this is all about. That is directly related to the previous contractor that was given a R22 million contract to run the campaign and ran into problems and that contract got suspended,'' Roy Padayachie said.
''The department is finalizing the legalities of that so that we can settle the matter with that contract. What is being put in place is a new set of measure to implement the marketing strategies. We want to put out a new tender for the marketing campaign.''
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