John Matisonn: SABC’s Digi-catastrophe laid bare

Tensions flared in Parliament as DA Communications Minister Solly Malatsi withdrew the SABC Bill, citing concerns over ministerial powers, without consulting the relevant committee. .Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here. .By John Matisonn ___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Rivalry between GNU partners ANC and DA was resolved politely in parliament yesterday (Tuesday) after DA Communications Minister Solly Malatsi was told he showed disrespect by withdrawing the SABC Bill without consulting the relevant committee first..The latest tension in the GNU was sparked when Malatsi withdrew the bill on the grounds that it gave the Minister too much power in appointing board members. ANC members said any flaws in the bill could have been resolved in the committee..Malatsi assured the committee he intended no disrespect, but would now review it in the context of the AudioVisual Policy paper that was never completed under his predecessor, Mondli Gungubele, who is now his deputy minister. He will engage with relevant officials and attempt a swift resolution..The portfolio committee on Communications and Digital Technologies heard a presentation on the long delayed digital migration process, which revealed that it has cost more than R10billion so far. .The committee agreed to support the minister's request that the deadline of December 31 to turn off analogue signals be postponed, because too many viewers would lose TV coverage..After hearing evidence that migration has so far cost the country at least R10billion, ANC committee chairperson Khusela Sangoni accepted that Malatsi is "Minister Number Nine" in recent years saddled with completing the process. "I don't want to sound alarmist, but this is an unmitigated disaster," she said..Of the losses, at least R1.23billion was spent on dual illumination – keeping both analogue and digital signals switched on from 2014 to 2023. For most of that time digital programming was not available to households, so Sentech could not charge SABC or e.tv for its use. Migration ran years behind its official deadline of 2015..Sentech's woes are directly caused by the delay in digital migration under previous ministers. Sentech made the mistake of doing its job on time — providing a full digital service from ground transmitters by 2015, which was the deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union. .SABC confirmed to the committee and the Minister for the first time that it issued a tender to outsource its new distribution on satellite and new media without consulting the department, the legal shareholder of the SABC..This should alarm officials since it bypasses Sentech, the SOE that used to be part of SABC and provides signal distribution for most existing broadcasting..The SABC requested another R140million for its continued rollout of digital distribution..In discussion, SABC executives said the digital distribution that has cost so many billions is rapidly being overtaken by different technologies. Department officials were unable to give figures for the number of households currently without TV access in their homes since the partial switch-off of analogue signals in several provinces. They said about 11million households currently bypass it using dishes from Multichoice or e.tv's Openview platform. .There are believed to be more than four million households still on analogue signals. SABC's losses are in no small part due to its loss of audience as a result of migration delays..Read also:.🔒 John Matisonn: SABC bill row descends into political wrangleDA calls for public hearings on SABC's fate and futureEvasion of SABC TV license fees highlights widespread civil non-compliance: Ernst van Zyl

John Matisonn: SABC’s Digi-catastrophe laid bare

Related Stories

Mills and Hartley: The cost of SA's "non" non-alignment

Frans Cronje's survival guide: How SA families should play the "enclave future"

Ian Bremmer on BizNews: AI arms race could blow up Trump-Xi truce

Stephen Roach on BizNews: Don’t mess with markets