Minister Update on Broadcasting Digital Migration; SABC Board recommendations

Meeting report

SABC Board vacancies

The Chairperson announced that the Minister would give the Committee a status update on the Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) project.

The sub-committee on the filling of SABC board vacancies had met and received a legal opinion regarding the submissions made by the public through the public participation process, on how to proceed with the affected candidates. The SABC board assessment had been received and circulated to the Members. This assessment addressed the performance of the current board, amongst other things, and had been referred to the sub-committee by some of the candidates who had participated in the process.

Concerning the qualification verification and vetting, the former process was under way, but five candidates had not returned their consent forms. The sub-committee had resolved to set these candidates a deadline, and failure to meet it would result in moving forward without them.

There were challenges with the State Security Agency (SSA) vetting process, but the sub-committee would apply pressure to resolve this before its next meeting. Once these processes had been concluded, the report of the sub-committee would formally be tabled to the Committee.

Minister on BDM deadline
 
Ms Khumbundzo Ntshavheni, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, said the Constitutional Court's ruling of 28 June imposed two requirements on the Department.

One was the rationale for determining 30 October 2021 as the last day of application to be connected before the switch-off. The court assumed that sufficient time was not granted to the public, but the Department was not given an opportunity to clarify. It also resolved that the Department must give sufficient notice to the public to decide if they wanted to apply or not. It was also clear that the Department must consider the prior work already done in making that determination. The Department had installed over a million set-top boxes (STBs) in its digital migration process.

The second matter was that the Minister must consult with the affected stakeholders in determining the deadline date. The Department decided to determine the last date for applications and give the public sufficient time to decide whether they wanted to apply. This was taken up to Cabinet and determined that it would be 30 September, which was published in the Gazette in all official languages. In addition, the Department partnered with the SABC and all radio stations and paid for slots to promote and communicate the 30 September deadline message.

Further, the Department partnered with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to ensure that it worked with local councillors and communities to use them to spread the message and to do activations in the communities. SALGA had also granted her platforms to encourage councillors and speak with communities in certain instances. The Department had also partnered with the National House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders to drive home the message.

It has also run community awareness and activation projects. The Minister went to all the provinces that had not been switched off, including Limpopo, to remind people to activate and ramp up the messaging. Currently, the Department was left with just three days before 30 September.

The Department had also explored other platforms, such as social media, and had built a countdown clock to 30 September, which was published daily. With all these efforts, the Department had not seen a huge influx of applications. It remained to be seen if the majority of South Africans had already self-migrated.

Update on BDM project

Mr Tebogo Leshope, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Sentech, provided details of the changes that had to be made after the Constitutional Court judgement; how the Department had established mechanisms and platforms; updates on the STB registrations and installations; the consultation process with stakeholders; the analogue switch-off; installer capacity and planned projects going forward.

In July, the Minister announced 30 September 2022 as the final date for applications for government-subsidised STBs. The extended window aimed to provide a further opportunity for needy households to make applications and register.
The total number of newly registered households between April 2022 and July 2022 now stood at 61 155. This translated to an average of 15 288 registrations per month, representing a decline in STB applications and registrations. Towards the STB registration deadline, the Department was evaluating registration data for August and September. Based on the consolidated number of registrations and installations, they were now left with approximately 200 000 installations to complete.

Regarding the analogue switch-off, M-Net/CSN had switched off analogue nationally. The SABC analogue transmission had been switched off in five provinces -- the Free State, Northern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. During the past period, eTV had switched off an additional five sites. In the five provinces where the SABC and M-Net analogue services had been switched off, Sentech had concluded frequency restacking spectrum bands to complete digital migration in these provinces. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) continued releasing the auctioned High Demand spectrum in these five provinces. This process would enable telecommunication network operators to decongest the networks by deploying 4G and 5G networks. Until the analogue switch-off (ASO) was achieved in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, digital migration could not be completed and all the auctioned spectrum could not be released.

[See the presentation for further details]

Discussion

Ms T Bodlani (DA) welcomed the update from the Department and acknowledged the measures applied to adhere to the Constitutional Court ruling. Noting that implementing the BDM took years, she said it must not be rushed at the cost of the poor. What impact had load-shedding had on the rollout of the set-top boxes?

Ms N Kubheka (ANC) appreciated the Minister for her presence, even though she was attending to another matter abroad, and welcomed the efforts made by the Department so far in implementing the ConCourt judgment.

Ms A Mthembu (ANC) referred to areas where post offices were closed, and asked if this did not affect the work of the Department in honouring the ConCourt judgment.

The Chairperson sought clarity on the consultations and the rollout plan to respond to the ConCourt judgment, and if this had been shared with those who had taken the matter up. What had been the level of response from them?

Responses

Mr Leshope said that load-shedding affected the installers and slowed down the installations. However, the schedule was now monitored to ensure that installations were intensified during the periods of energy availability. The Department was committed to ensuring that whoever applied would receive an installation before they were switched off.

The Department would continue empowering women and ensuring that they participated fully in installing these set-top boxes. The number of women participating was up to over 40% in terms of capacity.

If a post office closed, the Department encouraged people to use the closest post office or the online platform to register. Once a person registered, the Department made every effort to ensure that the STB was installed in the household.

On the levels of engagement, the Minister had established a steering committee involving the key stakeholders. Immediately after the September date was announced, the Department engaged the broadcasters and affected stakeholders in terms of the rollout, and all their questions were answered. At the end of September, the numbers would be consolidated, the key stakeholders would be engaged, and the Minister would announce the switch-off date.

Mr T Gumbu (ANC) wanted to know about the set-top boxes lying in the post office branches, including the branches that had closed. Were these boxes still in those post offices?

Mr Leshope responded that the structure of the post office to disseminate set-top boxes worked through the main offices in the metros, down to the branches. It was a chain that fed through all the way from the warehouses to the branches. Until the last applicant was cleared, there would still be set-top boxes flowing from the main warehouses to the branches. There was a monitoring mechanism for the flow of the stock.

The Chairperson was pleased that the Department had consulted those who were affected by the ConCourt outcome.

The meeting was adjourned.