After 4 months without one, legal action looms over CEO's 'appointment' as SABC board.

by Thinus Ferreira

Today marks exactly four months of the unstable South African public broadcaster having no board, with public pressure groups saying they're preparing to go to court over the illegal move by the minister of communications, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, to appoint SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe to act as if he's the SABC board.

The former SABC board's term expired on 15 October 2022, with no replacement board in place. 

It follows after politicians serving on parliament's portfolio committee on communications waited too late to start the public process to interview for new board candidates, after which president Cyril Ramaphosa failed since December 2022 to rubberstamp the list of 12 names put forth by parliament excluding two contentious names involved in conflict of interests.  

According to Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Madoda Mxakwe has suddenly been "designated by the minister of communications and digital technologies with the concurrence of the minister of finance as the board of the SABC" - a shocking move that the SOS Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) say they're "deeply concerned" about.

Uyanda Siyotula, SOS Coalition coordinator, says in a statement the "SOS Coalition and MMA believe the decision is unlawful and that the two ministers exceeded their powers".

"On a simple basis of good governance, it cannot surely be legitimate for one individual to be given board powers and make decisions that otherwise require 15 members of which 12 are non-executive members."

"The minister's assertion that the CEO is the board is at odds with even the most rudimentary elements of governing the SABC."

"It is the failure by parliament to fulfill its mandate in a timeous manner coupled with the president's failure to act swiftly to appoint the SABC board that has resulted in us being in a scenario where we now must contend with the absurdity of a CEO being the SABC board."

"The public was not informed of the decision when it was taken and its basis which raises further questions about the decision. The lack of transparency gives credence to rumoured political interference and orchestrated delay tactics in appointing the board," the SOS Coalition and MMA say.

According to them "there is currently no accountability and no oversight at the SABC because the current gimmicks do not amount to adequate governance".

"We know of at least two key decisions that have been taken in the absence of the SABC board. These include; a submission pertaining to the Analogue Switch Off (ASO) date due to the ministry on 27 January 2023. It is not clear who made the submission and on what basis it can be an SABC position when there was no Board."

"The public then learned of the launch of a 24-hour news channel in January 2023."

"Who oversees the implementation of the activities? Who is SABC management accountable to? Are the decisions being taken based on resolutions of the previous board and are they being implemented accordingly without deviation?"

According to Uyanda Siyotula the Broadcasting Act 13(13) doesn't make any provision for SABC executives to be appointed in the absence of the SABC board.

"Thus, we believe the appointment of the SABC CEO as the accounting authority is illegal and a breach of the Broadcasting Act."

"Seven weeks have passed since the president received the recommended names on 20 December 2022. We ask that the president proceeds to make appointments of the 10 candidates that aren't implicated as the board would still quorate."

"It is unacceptable to have the SABC be without a board for more than 16 weeks. The vacuum created by the absence of a board is causing further damage and deepening an entirely preventable crisis. SOS and MMA demand the urgent appointment of the SABC Board - in the public interest."

"SOS and MMA are currently taking legal advice and will act on an urgent basis if necessary."

Communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni now wants CEO Madoda Mxakwe to be accounting authority of boardless SABC, says broadcaster isn't affected without directors.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni now wants SABC CEO Madoda to be the struggling public broadcaster's accounting authority since there's no board of directors who are legally required to fulfil this role, and says the SABC isn't negatively affected by not having a board of directors.

The plan comes after South Africa's failed to appoint a new SABC board after the previous board's term expired on 15 October 2022.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies, in a written response to a question from the EFF political party's MP Vuyani Pambo, noted that the department has now asked the country's National Treasury for the SABC CEO to be made the broadcaster's accounting authority and that the SABC is allegedly not negatively affected by the lack of a board of directors.

Vuyani Pambo wanted to know what the impact is of the month-long and accounting delay of parliament's portfolio committee on communications to select candidates from a shortlist to be rubberstamped by president Cyril Ramaphosa as the new SABC board.

The last SABC board's term ended on 15 October with the broadcaster rudderless since then with no board of directors. Previously an illegal plan was hacked to try and stock the SABC board with "temporary SABC board members".

The portfolio committee on communications which started too late with the process blames South Africa State Security Agency (SSA) for taking too long to do security vetting and background checks of the shortlisted candidates.

The SSA in turn blames the South African police, saying there is an issue with the police's fingerprint system.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in her written reply said that the SABC being without a board was not impacted negatively by anything and that the SABC isn't run by its board of directors.

"In terms of the SABC's corporate plan, there are no scheduled matters that cannot be processed by the entity without board approval," Khumbudzo Ntshavheni wrote.

She also suggested in her response that if things do come up that need SABC board decisions, that sections of South Africa's Public Finance Management Act could be activated to deal with that.

"The department has since requested the approval of the National Treasury regarding the designation of the CEO as an accounting authority of the SABC," Khumbudzo Ntshavheni noted.

ALSO READ: South Africa's public broadcaster now a Month without a SABC board as dysfunctional parliament committee now blames problem with police's fingerprint system in vetting.

244 000 poor South African TV households still waiting on their digital terrestrial TV installation and government set-top box.

by Thinus Ferreira

Close to a quarter million poor South African TV households are still waiting for their subsidised digital terrestrial television (DTT) decoders to be installed South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, revealed at a media briefing on Thursday afternoon.

Eleven years behind schedule, South Africa's government is still trying to complete the country's long-overdue switch from analogue to digital terrestrial TV, a process known as digital migration.

While the South African government and the parastatal TV signal distributor Sentech have started to switch off analogue transmission signal towers in several provinces - something that has damaged the TV ratings of the SABC over the past year - eMedia's e.tv has refused to do so, taking the communications department to the Constitutional Court and demanding that the process be delayed until more free-to-air TV households have access to DTT instead of simply being cut off from public television in South Africa.

The outcome of the court case in which e.tv has been victorious over the department, has seen the analogue switch-off deadline of 30 June 2022 pushed out further to an undetermined date.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the new final date for households to register to receive a free DTT STB is now 30 September 2022, and hasn't declared a new final switch-off date.

On Thursday afternoon Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, at a DTT press briefing, said that 244 000 DTT installations still need to be done for indigent TV households earning less than R3 500 per month and who qualify for a free DTT set-top box (STB) decoder.

The 244 000 include TV households in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape who had their installations delayed due to adverse weather and flooding halting the process.

Between April and July this year there have been an average of 15 288 registrations from TV households applying for the government-subsidised STB, with the number of registrations declining.

"The total number of new registered households between April and July 2022 now stands at 61 155 and this translates to an average of 15 288 registrations per month - therefore, representing a decline in set-top-box applications and registrations," she said.

"The digital migration process is a national priority, and it must be completed without any further delay for the benefit of the country," Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said.

CTV warns: Millions of South African viewers to lose free TV access in government's rushed switch-off plan.

by Thinus Ferreira

Cape Town TV (CTV) is joining the chorus of extremely concerned voices warning about the South African government's suddenly-rushed plan to switch off all analogue TV signals in the country at the end of the month, warning that millions of viewers will lose their TV access and that it will damage free-to-air television and TV ratings.

It comes as e.tv's case against the government's switch-off date will be heard in the Pretoria high court on Monday and Tuesday 14 and 15 March.

After South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni suddenly switched to an aggressive province-by-province analogue TV signals switch-off schedule in 2021 - with the digital migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) now envisioned to end by 31 March - free-to-air TV ratings have started to fall as broadcasters lose viewers who haven't switched to set-top boxes (STBs) or new TV sets, and affecting ad rates.

After Sentech's analogue transmission towers for the SABC were switched off in the Free State - the first province to lose analogue television signals - TV viewers of the public broadcaster in 2021 plunged by a fifth (20%), with the SABC losing almost half of its TV audience (46%) in the Northern Cape and 34% of its TV ratings in the North West after those provinces lost their analogue transmissions.

eMedia took the decision to take the government to court to postpone the pronounced cut-off date of 31 March, with the case which will be heard today and tomorrow in the Pretoria high court.

Civil society groups like the Right2Know Campaign warn that the government is going to leave millions of ordinary South Africans without television access after 31 March and unable to get news, information and education programming.

In a statement, the department of communications and digital technologies says it "has noted with concern the misinformation and false claims that there is a pending loss of free-to-air television in South Africa".

"The misinformation seeks to create unnecessary anxiety about the end of dual illumination period and the gazetted analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2022. The claim that 14 million South Africans are going to lose free-to-air television on 31st March 2022 are preponderous at best and a figment of imagination at worst."

The department says poor households earning less than R3500 per month who applied for a government-subsidised STB by 31 October 2021 "will be connected before the switch-off and those who applied after the cut-off date will be connected within 3 to 6 months of the analogue switch-off date".

SA 'ill-prepared for analogue TV switch-off'

Like e.tv, the community TV station Cape Town TV says it is fighting to keep its analogue broadcast signal on-air "as the country stumbles towards the end of analogue TV transmission".

CTV says many of its current free-to-air viewers will lose access to the channel on 31 March since there are "too few digital TV receivers in the market".

"Our research shows that South Africans are very ill-prepared for the switch-off," says Karen Thorne, CTV station director.

"This presents a serious problem for all free-to-air broadcasters on the DTT platform. This is why e.tv is suing the government to postpone the analogue switch-off and its legal documents include community TV broadcasters as affected parties."

She says poor households who register to get an STB will still have to wait "many months before you get the device".

"Most of the existing government stocks have been earmarked for the 1.3 million people who have already registered and there is no telling when more will be available. The global chip shortage is a complicating factor that will extend the wait."

Millions of viewers to lose TV access

Karen Thorne says "We are certain that millions of South Africans are going to lose access to television if the analogue switch-off takes place as scheduled at the end of March".

"We know that less than half of the government decoders have been installed nationally and there are few decoders available for those who do not qualify for the subsidised devices. The major retail stores don't stock them so you have to find one at a specialist retailer or online supplier."

"We don't know how many digital TV sets with integrated tuners are out there, but we do know from the Broadcasting Research Council (BRC) that the proportion of television households that only receive free-to-air television stands at around 5.6 million."

"Multiply that figure by an average of 2.5 people in a TV household and that gives you an estimate of 14 million affected people. Many of these viewers are going to find themselves without television on April Fool's Day if analogue signals are switched off, particularly in the cities."

She says that a significant loss of audience will be tough on free-to-air broadcasters and could even be catastrophic for community TV channels like Cape Town TV.

"But the woes of the community TV sector don't end there - SA’s community television stations are being forced to shift from their local focus to become provincial broadcasters."

"While the expansion of broadcast footprints will bring more potential viewers into the ambit of community TV activities, it poses significant challenges for community broadcasters."

"For one thing, it dramatically increases transmission costs because many more transmitters must be hired from the national signal distributor, Sentech."

"CTV's signal distribution costs will rise from R60 000 a month to R1.8 million a month - an increase of 2900%," she says.

"We have been raising this issue with the government for many years but nothing has been done on the policy front to address this problem."

Rush to sell spectrum damaging SA TV

Karen Thorne says "The prime driver for the analogue switch-off is the auction of frequency spectrum to cellular operators, which has just taken place. Cape Town TV operates on the frequency 559.25 MHz, which is not a part of the digital dividend, so postponing switching it off will not disrupt the spectrum auction and the allocation of frequencies to bidders in that market."

"We have asked Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to postpone the analogue switch-off for this frequency so that the dual illumination period is extended for Cape Town TV. This will enable us to continue reaching Capetonians until such time as there is a reasonable business case for CTV to exist in a sustainable fashion on the DTT network."

CTV says it has joined the #SaveFreeTV movement launched by civil society organisations concerned that the government's scheduled analogue switch-off date of 31 March will deprive millions of South Africans from access to television due to the shortage of DTT receivers.

"CTV shares the concerns that e.tv and the #SaveFreeTV campaign are raising to postpone the analogue-switch-off in the major population areas until there is an adequate base of free-to-air viewers on DTT."

Karen Thorne says the South African government is "not paying attention to the fate of free-to-air television after the analogue switch-off in its rush to sell-off frequency spectrum to the cellular operators".

"We understand that the SABC saw a 30% drop-off in viewership in the Free State after its transmitters were switched off in that province. Even this level of viewership loss will hit community channels hard, but they are likely to lose even higher proportions as their lower-income audiences scramble to find viewing options."

"We want to see an orderly, well-managed and realistic process of migrating people to DTT," she says.

"This needs more time than is presently being allowed and the government must engage in a constructive fashion with all stakeholders to ensure that this happens successfully."

31 March 2022 - The final switch-off of South Africa's analogue TV signals.

by Thinus Ferreira

31 March 2022 - This is the date that South Africa's analogue TV signals across the country will finally be switched off when the remaining analogue transmitters will cease broadcasting in the country's long-delayed process of digital migration.

On Monday night Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies reiterated that South Africa will cease to broadcast analogue services on 31 March 2022 and complete the country's switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT).

While the SABC has remained silent, eMedia Holdings has warned that South Africa's TV ratings could be negatively impacted when existing South African TV households suddenly lose access to TV signals if they haven't switched over to a method to receive digital transmissions.

This would wipe TV households of the television ratings system, which would negatively impact advertising revenue for all broadcasters, since ad rates are determined by viewership.

On 8 February the minister ceremonially switched off the last of Sentech's SABC analogue signal transmitters in the Limpopo province, making it the fifth province in South Africa after the Free State, Northern Cape, North West and Mpumalanga which no longer have analogue signals beamed to TV viewers.

Plagued by industry infighting, corruption, cost-overruns, court cases, administrative bungling, a lack of leadership and constantly revolving ministerial figureheads, constantly changing regulations, encoding standards and codes, as well as encryption fights, South Africa is more than a decade behind in the switch to DTT since South Africa in 2006 agreed to the International Telecommunication Union's agreement to complete the switch by June 2015.

On 31 March 2022 the process of "dual illumination" - broadcasting the same TV signals as both analogue and DTT - will end.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says Sentech, providing signal distribution services to the South African public broadcaster, has ensured that the digital broadcast signal for the SABC has reached 100% through the terrestrial networks and those of pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv satellite TV service.

Meanwhile, many poor TV households who qualify for a free set-top box (STB), distributed through the struggling South African Post Office (SAPO), have not yet applied or received a decoder to continue to watch free-to-air TV channels like those of the SABC or e.tv.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says she has "considered progress with implementation of the cabinet decision to assist indigent TV-owning households with access to set-top boxes".

She says she is "satisfied with the number of indigent households that have registered for government assistance vis-à-vis number of available set-top boxes; progress with set-top boxes installations; and progress with the analogue switch-off in various provinces".

SABC TV Licence amnesty plan will wipe away billions in old fees that the South African public broadcaster wants replaced with a public media tax on all.

by Thinus Ferreira

The SABC and the South African government are advancing on a plan for SABC TV Licence amnesty that will simultaneously wipe billions of rands in long-overdue payments from the broadcaster's balance sheet and give millions of TV households a clean slate to start paying fees without back payments obligations, together with a plan to replace the shambolic licence scheme with a new tax in the form of a "public media levy".

In Wednesday's meeting of parliament's select committee on public enterprises and communications both the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the minister of communications and digital technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, again touched upon the SABC's application, made months ago, of a SABC TV Licence amnesty.

A SABC TV Licence fee amnesty will help to get rid of a mountain of built-up licence fee debt the broadcaster has no hope to ever recover. It might also help to encourage TV households with a mountain of SABC TV Licence fee debt to start paying again with a clean slate, and for new TV households not captured on the system, to come forward and register.

"We have supported the SABC in their request for an amnesty on TV licence issues. We are awaiting the concurrence of the National Treasury to take the matter to cabinet to make sure there is an amnesty on SABC TV licences," Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told the committee.

In 2017 the SABC wrote off a staggering R17.7 billion in outstanding SABC TV Licence fees that it no longer had any hope of recovering. Yet the struggling public broadcaster is owed billions more in outstanding SABC TV Licence fees that simply pile up year after year.

The SABC told parliament in 2017 that millions of South African TV households owe the SABC billions in rand that it will never be able to ever recover in real life. "Certain grannies have R15 000 owing – R9 000 in licences, R6 000 in penalties. It just doesn't make sense."

In 2021 just 21% - only 2.2 million out of the 10.3 million SABC TV Licence holders that the broadcaster is aware of - bothered to still pay their annual TV licence during the 2020/2021 financial year.

Millions more TV households than just this 10.3 million on the SABC's TV Licence database exist in South Africa that the broadcaster doesn't know of, that it had failed to capture with its outdated database system, and who are watching television without paying any fee.

The SABC is therefore in favour of doing away with a SABC TV Licence and for it to be replaced with a new type of general tax in the form of a so-called "media levy" that will cast a much wider net and remove the responsibility from the SABC of having to get TV households to pay a licence fee.

On Wednesday, Philly Moilwa, SABC general manager of regulatory affairs, told parliament that the SABC TV Licence fee should be scrapped.

"The current SABC TV Licence fee system should be scrapped and replaced with a device-independent, tech-neutral public media levy for public broadcasting, which would levy all households, commercial enterprises, organisations and institutions."

"This household levy is founded on the fact that every single South African household has the realistic expectation to access public broadcasting content ... Therefore the levy is linked to the public's ability to access public broadcasting content rather than on the consumption of that content."

Philly Moilwa said that it's not about what device you are using to access TV content "because that is going to make life very difficult for anyone to be made accountable in terms of paying SABC TV Licence fees. We are saying let us adopt a public media levy that is going to make everyone able to pay".

ALSO READ: Only 2.2 out of 10.3 million still bother to pay for a SABC TV Licence as the South African public broadcaster struggles with declining audiences.

South Africa's TV ratings set to tank in suddenly rushed digital migration plan: TAMS and e.tv warn millions of TV households will be wiped away and lose access, severely damaging TV biz and advertisers.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's TV ratings are set to tank. 

That's the stark warning from the custodian body of South Africa's TAMS TV ratings system, as well as e.tv, raising red flags over the government's suddenly rushed plan to complete its long-delayed digital TV migration plan to switch off all analogue signal transmitters by February 2022.

This suddenly rushed plan will leave millions of TV households without any television access, will severely damage the entire South African TV ecosystem, advertisers, cause TV ratings to crater while it leaves millions of viewers without access to television news content.

On Tuesday, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa's latest minister of communications and digital technologies, announced the latest amended rushed plan to flip the kill switch on all remaining analogue signal transmitters in the country's 9 provinces within the next 3 months.

eMedia Holdings that says the plan is not practical and extremely damaging, has now filed papers in the High Court to attempt to stop Khumbudzo Ntshavheni's latest digital terrestrial television (DTT) plan for a 31 January 2022 hard switch-off of analogue signals.

Although the South African government more than a decade ago promised that analogue TV signals in South Africa won't be switched off before all TV households haven't been switched over to digital terrestrial television (DTT), the government will now take television reception away from millions of TV households in South Africa.

These viewers will no longer be able to watch or listen to any content on any SABC TV channels or radio stations, e.tv, or community TV stations in the country as they lose analogue TV signals but don't yet have the means of receiving digital TV signals.

These millions of TV households are part of South Africa's TV ratings system that TV channels use to set advertising rates according to TAMS viewership figures. The result is that these TV households will disappear in large swathes when analogue signals are turned off.

Millions of South African TV households still watch television using analogue TV signals and haven't bought digitally-capable TV sets, or are poor households that haven't received the free government-subsidised set-top box (STV) for DTT because of corruption and incompetence, industry-in-fighting and ongoing delays in the country's digital migration process that had severely hampered and delayed the process for a decade and a half.

Over the past decade, TVwithThinus had reported numerous times - as lately as March this year - about the looming danger that analogue transmitters in South Africa will be switched off before all TV households have been migrated that will inflict massive damage on free-to-air broadcasters who depend on ratings and advertising revenue, advertisers, as well as the TV ratings system.

Analogue signal hard kill: Millions of viewers left in the dark

Khalik Sherrif, Media Holdings CEO, in an interview on eNCA (DStv 403), said Media and e.tv don't agree with the suddenly changed and rushed plan to switch off all analogue TV signals by the end of March 2022 "because we don't believe it's achievable at all".

"Analogue switch-off must happen," he said, "but in the way it's being rushed now, it is absolutely unachievable to do this by January 2022." 

He said there's an STB shortage with decoders that are not available, there's a microchip shortage around the world in all industries depending on chipsets, and that there are big questions around the logistics on installations.

"How is it going to be done? 5.6 million TV households in this country rely on analogue transmission," Khalik Sherrif said. "You need to do 500 000 boxes a month to meet the January deadline. It's not going to happen. Absolutely not." He said that eMedia's plan and suggested for the government's amended DTT plan has not been heard.

"This is an absolute problem for the country. There are people who are going to be left in the dark. There's going to be no television available to many millions of households and that's the problem."

He said that "more than 50% of people in this country watching television are watching it through analogue. 

SA's TV ratings: Warning of severe impact

Gary Whitaker, Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) CEO, warned that South Africa's TV population will decline and that the country's TV ratings will tank if analogue signals are switched off before all viewers have migrated, with massive implications for the TV industry and advertisers. 

South Africa's TV universe is roughly 15.9 million TV households.

The passive TV households forming part of the TAMS panel are just over 3000 TV households that represent the almost 16 million TV households in the country. 

TAMS also measures analogue TV viewing, with 28% of the households in the TAMS panel who are analogue viewers and who represent 5.6 million TV households.

"TAMS reflects what is actually happening in the market. If analogue signals go off, anyone in our panel that loses their signal, we don't throw them out of our panel - they stay on - and they get measured as nil viewing. Zero viewing. Their viewership cannot be traded as a currency. The broadcasters cannot make money."

Gary Whitaker said that "the deadline as it stands now - we know that's there's going to be a severe impact on free-to-air channels".

He said that if there is a hard switch-off of analogue transmitters in South Africa wiping away millions of viewers "we have to abide by what's happening in the market and we will be agile as far as we can. If there is a switch-off by March 2022 that's when we will enact our plan to establish a new TV universe that will take into consideration fewer TV viewers. The TV population will decline." 

DTT: Free-to-air broadcasting in jeopardy

Khalik Sherrif said that the government's plan for a sudden hard switch-off of analogue signals within months will have a massive negative impact on free-to-air broadcasters like community TV stations, the SABC, e.tv and others.

"Free-to-air broadcasters make their money from advertising. Now you switch off everybody on a date. Hard switch-off. Viewers won't be measured. Advertisers will be disappointed. Marketers will pull away. Free-to-air broadcasting in the country stands in jeopardy because we lose our businesses," Khalik Sherrif said.

He said there must be a planned approach with Media suggesting a timeframe of 15 to 18 months - not 5 months.

Khalik Sheriff said that it's not just eMedia that will be impacted but all of free-to-air broadcasting in South Africa. "What is the recourse? We have to go to the court. There's no other way. We're definitely not partnering with the department of communications on this matter".

In the court affidavit eMedia filed in court, Antonio Lee, eMedia COO, states that "very recent events have raised alarm bells regarding the process that the minister and Icasa intend to follow to achieve analogue switch-off".

"The so-called 'fast-tracking of digital migration at a 'rapid speed' - without the preconditions for a lawful digital migration process having been achieved - fundamentally threatens e.tv's ability to continue to reach the majority of its audience".

"It also threatens the rights of the public to have access to free-to-air television from either the SABC or e.tv - both of which use analogue spectrum for the purposes of broadcasting their programmes."

"Around 23.5 million viewers in South Africa watch e.tv on average each month. This equates to approximately 6.7 million households in which e.tv is viewed."

"Given than 58% of these households are dependent on the analogue broadcasting of e.tv's news and programming, an analogue switch-off would deny some 13.6 million viewers in South Africa the opportunity to view the broadcasting of the only source of free-to-air independent television news and information programming."

"Many of these viewers are among those who do not have sufficient economic resources to afford digital subscription platforms such as DStv, and who cannot afford to purchase sufficient data to stream news and programming via mobile networks."

"To comply with constitutional obligations and public promises, before digital migration can be completed, the government must ensure that these 13.6 million viewers are provided with the necessary equipment, be it set-top boxes and/or reception devices, to continue to receive these broadcasts."

"e.tv has calculated that an additional 3.9 million set-top boxes are still to be provided to its viewers to achieve this purpose."

ALSO READ: South Africa's TV ratings system and broadcasters risk damage in new monthly analogue TV hard switch-off approach as signal transmitters are shut down in provinces before all viewers have switched to DTT or received set-top boxes.

ALSO READ: e.tv and the SABC silent over the drop-off danger and the threat of disappearing audiences in South Africa's digital terrestrial TV switch-over.

ALSO READ: South Africa's government now ready to leave millions of poor analogue TV households behind in long-delayed digital migration switch that that gets yet another revised deadline of March 2022 for completion.

ALSO READ: SA'S DIGITAL TV SHOCKER: The 'secret' R800 South Africa's TV viewers don't know they'll have to pay just to keep watching their free television.

South Africa's government now ready to leave millions of poor analogue TV households behind in long-delayed digital migration switch that that gets yet another revised deadline of March 2022 for completion.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African government is now ready to leave millions of analogue TV viewers behind in its switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT) with poor TV households who literally won't be able to watch television further as transmitters are switched off nationwide while they haven't changed to digital set-top boxes.

Meanwhile the country's department of communications once again amended and pushed out its deadline for provinces to fully switch from analogue to DTT that it agreed on and published in March, just 6 months ago.

It is estimated that there are close to 4 million South African TV households who are still on the analogue television platform. 

At the start of South Africa's long-delayed digital migration process, the South African government promised that analogue TV signals in the country won't be switched off before all viewers have not switched to DTT and have successfully migrated.

That is no longer the case, with the government that is now switching off analogue transmitters whether all analogue TV households in a specific provincial area have switched or not. 

The department of communications and digital technologies is still helping poor TV households with an oncome of less than R3500 per month to get a free DTT set-top box (STB) but will no longer wait for them to first have the box before switching off analogue transmission towers in provinces.

On Tuesday, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the country's latest minister of communications and digital technologies, in a government briefing said that Tebogo Leshope, Sentech chief operating officer (COO) has now been appointed as South Africa's broadcasting digital migration project manager.

Multiple such DTT managers have come and gone over the past decade as South Africa missed the international deadlines for DTT completion, as well as the government and the department's own national deadlines with constantly moving goalposts.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Tuesday revealed that the department had once again shifted out the deadlines for DTT completion and analogue switch-off in various provinces it announced in March this year.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that analogue transmitters in the Free State will be completely switched off by the end of October or by the first week of November by the latest, followed by complete switch-off of the 11 remaining analogue sites in the Northern Cape province by mid- or late-November.

The remaining 15 analogue sites in the North-West province will be switched off by mid- or late-November as well, while all the remaining analogue sites in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces will be switched off in the last week of December 2021 or the first week of January 2022 according to the latest adjusted list.

All remaining analogue sites in the Eastern Cape,Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces will be switched off by the end of January 2022.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, in the latest DTT completion promise, said that South Africa's digital TV migration process will be completed by the end of March 2022.

Poor TV households getting their television from analogue TV signals have until the end of October to still register at the struggling South African Post Office to receive a free STB. Households who register from November will only be getting a decoder between 3 to 6 months after the analogue switch-off date.

Only 1.18 million of the qualifying 3.75 million poor TV households in South Africa have registered for a STB. Out of this 1.18 million, the South African government only managed to "migrate" 556 954 to a set-top box. 

Meanwhile households who have received DTT decoders have complained that theirs have broken, no longer work, or that badly manufactured boxes are faulty or never worked properly. Meanwhile 840 000 STB are laying in Post Office warehouses collecting dust, still to be handed out and installed.

On Tuesday Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that 10.5 million TV households in South Africa have "self-migrated" from analogue to digital terrestrial television through private and commercial satellite pay-TV and free-to-air satellite TV.

Of this, 7.8 million TV households have been through MultiChoice's DStv, 2.3 million through eMedia Holdings' Openview, and 450 000 through China's StarTimes operating as StarSat in South Africa.

Sentech has already switched off 84 analogue sites across various provinces in South Africa. MultiChoice has switched off all of its analogue transmitters. The South African public broadcaster has switched off 105 of its 288 transmitters. Of the 95 analogue sites used by e.tv, only 4 have been switched off so far.

Not a single South African province has yet switched off all of its analogue signal transmitters.

Once again the department of communications trying to create a Digital Migration Call Centre that it should have done long ago and promised many times. 

On Tuesday Khumbudzo Ntshavheni promised yet again that a Digital Migration Call Centre has been created and that the details of it will be made available later in October 2021.

 Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that an app is being created so that poor people can register for a free set-top box and that it is under development. 

Since Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that poor TV households only have until the end of October to register, and with the app still in development, it's unclear how households are supposed to use an app that doesn't exist in October to register before the end of October for a decoder.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the department now wants to go to cabinet with a policy proposal for codes and standards for digital TV sets as have been done in other countries to prevent the possible dumping of imported analogue TV sets in South Africa. It's unclear why the South African government and the department haven't done this years ago.

ALSO READ: South Africa's TV ratings system and broadcasters risk damage in new monthly analogue TV hard switch-off approach as signal transmitters are shut down in provinces before all viewers have switched to DTT or received set-top boxes.