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SA households urged to buy digital television sets before analogue switch-off
'The compliant digital TV set is identified through the Go-Digital logo.'
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni briefs media on outcomes of the Cabinet meeting on 10 June 2021. Picture: GCIS
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has urged South Africans to buy new television sets before the broadcast digital migration kicks in.
Ntshavheni briefed the media on Thursday following a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruling on the digital migration.
Last month, the ConCourt ruled that government’s deadline for the national switch-off from analogue to digital to be unconstitutional and unlawful.
The judgment came after e.tv appealed the Pretoria High Court’s dismissal of its bid to stop the 30 June 2022 deadline for the migration.
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The previous deadline was 31 March 2022.
E.tv had argued against the switch off, saying it would result in millions of poor households being cut off because they do not have access to set-top boxes (STBs) to access digital television.
The ConCourt also ruled that the imposed deadline of 31 October 2021 for indigent households to register for STBs was unconstitutional, as the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies did not take the necessary steps to ensure that the public was adequately informed.
Closing date
During Thursday’s briefing, Ntshavheni noted the ConCourt’s judgment and announced the new closing date for STBs applications as well as registrations.
“This week, I will publish through a government gazette a public notice of the 30th of September 2022 as the closing date for applications and registrations for government subsidized set-top boxes for qualifying indigent households.
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“The 31st of October 2021 deadline was provisional as qualifying households could still apply for STBs after, but the 30th of September 2022 is the final deadline, and no applications will be considered after this date,” she said.
The minister further called on all analogue users to switch to digital.
“I will also inform members of the public and non-indigent households who are still watching analogue TV, of my intention to switch-off analogue and urge them to purchase compliant digital television sets from retail market. The compliant digital TV set is identified through the Go-Digital logo,” Ntshavheni said.
STB installations
Ntshavheni said that the SABC analogue transmission has been switched off in the Free State, the Northern Cape, the North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, with Sentech having completed the restacking of the spectrum.
However, until the analogue switch-off is completed in the four remaining provinces, namely Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, the digital migration cannot be completed.
STB installations have been completed in the Free State, the Northern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
“The Constitutional Court has accepted that subsidized set-top-boxes can only be provided to those who apply and qualify for such assistance,” Ntshavheni pointed out.
All provinces, the minister revealed, have been completed STB installations excluding KZN And Eastern Cape, which were affected by the April floods.
As of June, approximately 94, 113 qualifying households remain unconnected in KZN And Eastern Cape although connections were continuing at a slow pace.
“We commenced with installations for households that registered by the end of March 2022 in the five provinces that have completed installations of 31 October 2021 registrations, but Western Cape and North-West are yet to commence,” she further said.
“To date we have installed STBs to 56,354 households that registered by the end of March 2022 with Free State and Northern Cape already on mop-up stages.
“We will commence connecting the end of June registrations as and when we complete end of March targets in provinces,” the minister added.
Registrations
The total number of households that had registered for the subsidised decoders reached 260,868 between November and March.
This represents about 52,000 registrations each month.
Meanwhile, the number of STB registrations had slowed to 49,385 from April to June, which 16,461 per month.
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Ntshavheni highlighted that the period between the day of the publishing of the government gazette and closing date was sufficient for the last registrations given the slowdown in the number of applications.
She added that she will evaluate the total number of new registrations “against the progress with installations and commence consultations with affected parties” on the new analogue switched-off date.
