The long-running project to roll out government-subsidised set-top boxes to qualifying indigent households in preparation for the analogue terrestrial television switch-off, currently set for 31 March 2025, appears to be in a state of disarray, an investigation by TechCentral has found.

Contractors working on the project as installers, who spoke to TechCentral on condition of anonymity, have laid bare a litany of problems, including allegedly below-market installation fees paid by project manager Sentech; incompetent or disengaged project managers; a lack of effective administrative support systems; and even loss and theft of stock.

Earlier this week, TechCentral reported that Sentech has just two months left to distribute 220 000 warehoused set-top boxes to qualifying homes across the country. According to the installers, who spoke off the record for fear of retaliation, there is “no way” the project will meet the 31 March 2025 deadline because “the situation on the ground is a mess”.

Late last year, communications minister Solly Malatsi announced a three-month extension to analogue switch-off. E.tv – backed by Media Monitoring Africa the SOS Coalition – have dragged Malatsi to court, saying that cutting off analogue broadcasts will deprive millions of South Africans access to television.

TechCentral’s investigation into the problems with the subsidised set-top box programme is likely to cast further doubt on whether the 31 March switch-off can be met.

“The contract and quality assurance rules stipulate that payments will be made in two weeks,” one of the aggrieved installers told TechCentral. “But we have never experienced that – no one has ever been paid on time. Some installers have not been paid in two years.”

A spokeswoman for government’s Universal Service and Access Agency (Usaasa), which has the set-top boxes on its balance sheet, confirmed earlier this week that Sentech is responsible for the project management duties associated with the installations. However, financial oversight of the project remains with Usaasa, which pays for the procurement of set-top boxes as well as their warehousing and installation.

Unhappy situation

The installers said that when the project began in 2016, Usaasa managed the project itself, including payments to installers. During the period leading up to 2019, the rate paid was around R650 per installation, they said, slightly below what they described as the market rate of about R800 paid by MultiChoice-owned DStv for installations at the time. One of the installers said payments were made three times a week and another said he would receive payments within 72 hours of an invoice being approved.

When Sentech took over the project’s management, however, the rate was slashed to R250 and the installers had to battle the entity to get it to the current rate of R391, said one installer. To better manage their workloads, contracted installers often subcontract work to “local installers”, especially in more outlying areas.

Read: E.tv drags Solly Malatsi to court over March digital TV deadline

“When the rate was R250, some subcontractors were accepting rates as low as R80 per installation. There were calls among the installers to reject these rates but they couldn’t because they were desperate: ‘R80 is better than nothing’, they would say,” one of the installers told TechCentral.

An installer’s costs include a vehicle, which may be owned or hired, fuel, airtime to call the recipients of the units, and data to upload project information to the central project management system. “From that R80, R10 is used to call the client – how are you meant to cover your other costs?” the installer asked.

The frequency of payments has also changed, an installer said, explaining that under Usaasa’s management, an invoice could be sent through after every 10 installations completed, with payments usually received within 72 hours.

“At some point they changed the rules and you had to do 100 installations before your invoice would be approved. But the project managers also started being nasty. They started punishing small errors, so if one picture from one installation was missing from your report, they wouldn’t exclude that one household from the payment – the whole invoice would be rejected.”

These changes allegedly placed installers under financial strain as they could no longer meet their financial obligations. Some had taken loans from banks, stokvels, family and even loan sharks. Others were renting space to safeguard the set-top boxes they were tasked with distributing.

The installers have blamed poor project management for the mess. The quality of oversight has deteriorated over time, with incidents like installation kits being delivered with missing parts becoming more prevalent, they alleged.

How work is distributed is also allegedly an issue. In the Northen Cape, for example, installers would be given jobs in batches ranging from five to 15 units in a given district and be forced to drive long distances – up to 80km in some cases – to complete the next batch. Meanwhile, another installer would be travelling in the opposite direction, having completed five homes where the first installer was now travelling to, to do five jobs where he was coming from.

“We complained about why the work is not distributed according to wards to help us manage costs, but no one listened,” an installer said.

Also problematic is the issue of duplicates. Installers would be sent out to households where a partial installation was done, with either a satellite dish or decoder missing. Once completed, the order would be rejected upon invoice, with Sentech’s systems saying that particular household had already been serviced.

Deadline

The installers TechCentral spoke to say it is unlikely Sentech will complete the installation of the remaining 220 000 set-top-boxes by the analogue switch-off deadline. They also questioned the accuracy of this number, claiming there is stock Sentech cannot account for since many installers abandoned the project without returning stock allocated to them, with some choosing to sell the units to recover some of their costs.

One of the installers said Malatsi, the communications minister, needs to intervene urgently if there’s any hope of the project succeeding anytime soon.

Read: Malatsi intervenes after Sentech threat to cut SABC transmissions

TechCentral asked Sentech for comment on the allegations that the project has gone awry, but it hadn’t responded to e-mailed questions by the time of publication.

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