The South African government's department of communications changing to department of communications and digital technologies.

The South African government has announced that its department of communications will be changing to a new name of department of communications and digital technologies (DCDT).

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement on Friday.

This follows the merger of the department of telecommunications and postal services that has been folded back into the department of communications.

The department of communications was split into the department of communications and the department of telecommunications and postal services in 2014 by the then South African president Jacob Zuma and his corrupt government.

South Africa's industry, business and TV sector in 2014 slammed the split with both departments that continued to severely underperform and with the country little further in long-delayed switch and digital migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT).

The switch to DTT has already cost the South African government and the local TV industry billions and is more than a decade behind schedule with both departments that failed in advancing and completing the process.

The jetsetting minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams who was in Japan last week on yet another whirlwind global tete-a-tete will continue to lead the department of communications and digital technologies although she hasn't been hands-on in dealing with solving extremely acute and months-old problems like the cash-strapped South African public broadcaster.

The damaged and beleaguered SABC needs more than R3 billion in an urgent new government-guaranteed bailout, while the South African Post Office has been floundering, and many other areas requiring urgent intervention.

The merger of the department of communications and department of telecommunications and postal services are ongoing.

Contrary to rumours, broadcasting regulator Icasa will remain under the department of communications as originally proclamated.

Contrary to false rumours South Africa's broadcasting regulator Icasa will remain under the department of communications and will not be "switching" to report to the new department of telecommunications and postal services as has been recently alleged would be happening.

The new minister of communications, Faith Muthambi on Friday made it clear in a sitting of parliament's portfolio committee on communications that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa will report to the department of communications as president Jacob Zuma proclamated.

Recently rumours surfaced that although president Jacob Zuma said Icasa would resort under the department of communications, that it will be changed and that Icasa will report to the new department of telecommunications and postal services led by the former state security minister Siyabonga Cwele. That is not true.

Faith Muthambi stated that Icasa is staying with the department of communications and is not moving in its reporting to the new department of telecommunications and postal services.

"The president's announcement was very clear. So the proclamation is out. What is left is for the transfers of the functions of these other entities who were not mentioned by the president's announcement".

"We all agree that Icasa has been ineffective and inefficient. That's why now, with the president's announcement, it is to make sure that we deal with its institutional transformation. When Icasa was constituted in terms of South Africa's constitution (section 192)."

"When the president made the announcement, it was to align it with the provisions of the constitution".

"There's no confusion where Icasa is located," said Faith Muthambi.

BREAKING. Government to launch digital TV migration in South Africa on 26 September in Northern Cape at SKA; set top box costing R400.

You're reading it here first. 

I can exclusively reveal that the launch of digital migration - the start of the commercial switch in South Africa from analogue to digital broadcasting and digital terrestrial television (DTT) is planned for 26 and 27 September 2012 in the Northern Cape with the area of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) chosen where 20 STBs will be used in a symbolic, ceremonial "switch-on" ceremony.

The SKA has been chosen to demonstrate that the frequencies used will not be interfering with the SKA project and to show people in South Africa's "deep rural areas" currently without access to public television that they could now have access.

The government and South Africa's broadcasting industry plans to roll out DTT over the next three years, which will require TV viewers top buy a set top box (STB) and an antenna, with poorest households receiving a partial subsidy. The government now also pegs the price of a STB at R400 - a big drop from the original R700.

Meanwhile a STB Control System is being developed under the auspices of Sentech which would cost South Africa R10 million and enable the government and/or broadcasters to turn STBs on and off. Sentech is working with the SABC and the broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) on what is called a "Broadcast Master Plan" regarding DTT coverage for the country.

According to South Africa's department of communications the SABC, e.tv and M-Net are all ready to launch on the DTT platform the department told parliament in a special progress report on the country's readiness for digital terrestrial television.

The SABC is ready to transmit SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 on the DTT network and will also have its new 24-hour news TV channel ready for DTT which the SABC plans to launch at the beginning of September on MultiChoice's DStv platform. The SABC and e.tv is also working on a free-to-air (FTA) partnership to promote their collective digital television offering.

The SABC, e.tv and Sentech are meanwhile all in the process of establishing specific call centres to deal with DTT enquiries from viewers and consumers.

The launch, if it does take place on 26 and 27 September will be largely ceremonial - it will be a technical launch since no tenders for the manufacture of STBs have yet been awarded by government, no real STBs will exist to be bought by South African consumers and viewers to actually watch digital television transmissions. It takes 3 months to manufacture a STB.

Sentech has ordered 20 STBs for the 26 September DTT launch - divided into 10 which will be used for direct-to-home (DTH) and 10 for the DTT launch demonstration.

SA's massive DTT budget shortfall
Meanwhile South Africa's DTT budget is experiencing a massive shortfall to enable the digital migration. The department of communications needs STB subsidies to the tune of R2,635 billion, over and above the R940 million projected earlier. The overall shortfall, including the SABC's technology upgrade and Sentech's dual illumination requirements is projected at R7 billion for South Africa.

There is a budget shortfall of R800 million for the DTT Awareness Campaign of the department of communications meant to tell South African consumers what to do and TV viewers  how to switch-over to DTT.

Both the department of communications and Sentech, the parastatal signal distributor, were told by parliament to communicate and collaborate more with each other on digital migration.

Sentech told parliament that it is committed, ready and capable to support a national technical launch of DTT during the third quarter of 2012 within the existing DTT coverage areas for terrestrial services. Sentech further said that the signal distributor was working towards 80% coverage by the end of the financial year with full conversions of sites in Limpopo, the Free State, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, and additional sites in the Eastern Cape, North West and the Western Cape.

SKA chosen as "proof that DTT works'
Roy Kruger, technical adviser to the department of communications told parliament that the department of communications is targeting the SKA in the Northern Cape firstly as a "proof of concept" - to show that DVB-T2 works, and secondly that the frequencies used are not interfering with the SKA Project. Thirdly, it will show that people in rural areas without access to TV could now have receive public South African television.

Logistics and political arrangements for the launch dates of 26 and 27 September are apparently already in place. The DTT technical launch would have two components to it - namely satellite or direct-to-home (DTH) around the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) to prove that the SKA signals would not interfere with broadcast signals, and DTT transmission to a township near Kimberley which currently has the only DTT transmitter in the Northern Cape.

The department of communications has already identified 3 500 installers nationally who would assist with DTT installation.

BREAKING. Public Services Broadcasting Bill would give government ''undue control over the SABC''.

You're reading it here first.

The highly respected prof. Jane Duncan has written about the government's proposed new Public Services Broadcasting Bill and calls it an ''exercise in maldevelopment''.

In her writing an the website for the South African Civil Society Information Service which you can READ RIGHT HERE in full, Duncan who is Highway Africa Chair of Media and Information Society at the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, says that with the bill the Department of Communications wants to ''exercise undue control over the SABC and the community media sector''.

''These attempts at control are dangerous,'' she writes and states that it might compromise the SABC's editorial independence.

She writes that ''the Bill makes some attempt to address . . . deficiencies in the media system'' and that ''the proposed changes to the SABC's funding base are progressive, and should be supported.''

She writes that should the Bill become law, it will in her opinion ''probably heighten the SABC's culture of editorial timidity, where anything considered too hot to handle is shelved.''

BREAKING. SOS calls government's Public Services Broadcasting Bill ''premature'', says it needs a lot of work.

You're reading it here first.

The SOS (Supporting Public Broadcasting Coalition, formerly known as the Save our SABC) has come out in full force on the controversial new Public Service Broadcasting Bill formulated by the Department of Communication. The SOS says the proposed legislation is ''premature'', needs ''a substantitive review process'', and says it contains ''constitutional problems''.

The SOS says it ''applauds'' the Department of Communications for ''trying to act swiftly in bringing about much-neede legislative reform'' and that the Bill has ''a number of positive elements which we certainly support''.

The SOS says that there's ''a number of Constitutional problems with the Bill'' and that it undermines the SABC's freedom of expression rights - especially in that the minister of communication should get to approve the SABC's editorial policies.

''Further, the Bill contravenes the Constitution’s requirement to 'ensure independent regulation of broadcasting by a single Regulator,'' says the SOS, basically meaning that the new Bill will impose itself on top of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) through the department's ''scope of it powers''.

BREAKING. Department of Communications gives in to public pressure, extends date for comment on Public Services Broadcasting Bill.

You're reading it here first. The Department of Communications has just bowed to public and persistent pressure to extend the deadline for public comment on the somewhat controversial new Public Services Broadcasting Bill.

The bill will radically transform the SABC and public television broadcasting in the country and give sweeping powers over public broadcasting to the minister of communications.

The deadline for submission has just been extended to 15 January 2010, the department of communications informed me.

The extention follows after Media Monitoring Africa, together with the SOS Supporting Public Broadcasting Coalition, has appealed that the deadline be extended from 7 December to the end of March 2010.

BREAKING. TVIEC 'extremely concerned' about loss of freedom in new broadcasting bill for SABC.

You're reading it here first. The TV Emergency Industry Coalition (TVIEC) has responded to the Department of Communications' new Public Service Broadcast Bill and says the TVIEC has ''some serious reservations'' about the content of the bill that the department now wants to rush through and make law.

The government wants to repeal the Broadcast Law of 1999.

''We would like to restate our position that the crisis at the SABC is as much a management crisis as a financial crisis. Even though the independent production sector has borne the brunt of the crisis, is still owed millions of rands by the SABC and is buckling under the effects of a cut-back in commissioning of local content.''

''We strongly believed that changing the financial funding model without reviewing the operations and management of the organization is akin to throwing good money after bad. We believe that the present crisis should be separated from the long term issues of funding public broadcasting,'' says the TVIEC.

''The SABC is not going to trade itself out of its present financial difficulties and needs a bail-out regardless of what happens with public broadcasting funding in the long-term. Moreover, any financial model will fail without competent leadership.''

''In addition, the bill suggests adding further institutions into the broadcasting environment either as oversight bodies or as funding bodies. The TVIEC believes that organizations such as ICASA should be strengthened rather than undermined. Like the SABC, they need inspired and competent leadership and sufficient resources to do their work. Merely adding more organizations will not provide the necessary leadership that is needed.''

''What we have witnessed is a serious lack of professional skills and the required leadership abilities that allow independent public institutions to be sufficiently effective.''
''In addition, the TVIEC is extremely concerned about the loss of autonomy for the public broadcaster suggested by the bill.''

The TVIEC says more time is needed to debate the bill. ''To rush through the changes without meaningful participation from the public and broadcast industry stakeholders will be disastrous.''

BREAKING. Government wants to scrap SABC TV licences

I got the news Thursday night while i attended the Channel O Awards and was THIS CLOSE to run out and write a story for the newspaper. But I waited until the next morning at 06:00.

The government - specifically the Department of Communications has a new proposed bill out, called the Public Services Broadcasting Bill. If it becomes law, it will repeal the Broadcasting Act of 1999.

The bill contains dramatic and far reaching changes that will mean a vast seachange and the biggest overhaul of public broadcasting in this country since the SABC switched on it's television signal in 1976.

Here's the MAJOR IMPLICATIONS about what government wants to do in the bill of 80 pages:

*Scrap TV licences immediately. Taxpayers should now contribute at least 1% of their personal income tax to fund the development of TV broadcasting in South Africa.

*Increased power by the minister of communications over the SABC, especially the SABC board.

*The creation of a so-called Public Services Broadcasting Fund (PSB) that will pay for public broadcasting (eg. the SABC).

*The creation of a brand-new International Broadcasting Services (IBS) division within the SABC and the transfer of channels like Channel Africa and SABC News International to this division. The IBS will have to adhere to South Africa's official foreign policy regarding Africa, in the matter of ''development, reconstruction, peace and stability".

*Making SABC News International available as a free TV channel to all South Africans, which currently has only limited satellite broadcasting capability.

*The creation of a new body called Local Content Advisory Body which will determine - and then advise the minister - on the amount and type of local TV content in the country and ''how that can be improved''.

*The establishment of a new Broadcasting and Signal distribution Museum.

*A new performance review system to measure the performance of the SABC board.

*Power to the minister to order investigations at the SABC, and the ability to ''replace or remove SABC board members''.

*The approval and creation of a number of specialist TV channels for South Africa - not necessarily by the SABC - that will focus on youth programming, ethnic documentary programming and nature documentary programming.
*Ordering more local TV content for all broadcasters in the country.

*The creation of regional TV channels by the SABC with money that provincial legislatures must contribute to.

*The creation of more TV channels, specifically by the SABC during the process of digital migration that include:
Youth
Health
Sport
Small business support
Parliamentary services
Interactive government information

 

New director-general at the Department of Communication

Mamodupi Mohlala has just been appointed as the new director-general at the Department of Communications. She will start beginning of September. She served as a councillor at the Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) until June 2007.