Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      The satellite broadband operators taking on Starlink

      9 July 2025

      Yaccarino out: Musk’s handpicked CEO quits X suddenly

      9 July 2025

      AI gold rush propels Nvidia to record $4-trillion market cap

      9 July 2025

      Price hike for .za domains

      9 July 2025

      China’s Temu ups ante with South African warehouse launch

      9 July 2025
    • World

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025

      Grammarly acquires e-mail start-up Superhuman

      1 July 2025

      Apple considers ditching its own AI in Siri overhaul

      1 July 2025

      Jony Ive’s first AI gadget could be … a pen

      30 June 2025

      Bumper orders for Xiaomi’s YU7 SUV heighten threat to Tesla

      27 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

      27 June 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on data governance in hybrid cloud environments

      27 June 2025
    • Opinion

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Broadcasting and Media » What if the ANC is incapable of delivering digital migration?

    What if the ANC is incapable of delivering digital migration?

    By Duncan McLeod12 February 2021
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Cyril Ramaphosa. Image: GCIS

    I let out a cynical laugh while watching President Cyril Ramaphosa deliver his state of the nation address in parliament on Thursday evening.

    I was laughing not at his pie-in-the-sky plans to build a smart city near Lanseria, nor at his promise that restructuring at Eskom will create an “efficient, modern and competitive energy system”. No, I was laughing because he promised that South Africa would complete its analogue television switch-off by March next year – the latest deadline in an exceptionally long list of missed deadlines in the broadcasting digital migration project.

    Ramaphosa’s promise in parliament that Sentech, the state-owned broadcasting signal distributor, will begin the switch-off of analogue transmitters next month and complete the project within 12 months is doable, of course. It’s just that I no longer have much faith that the ANC government is capable of delivering the project.

    Zuma, of course, stuffed the communications ministry with a series of corrupt, incompetent or (at best) ineffective politicians

    Ten years after broadcasting digital migration was meant to be completed – according to the original deadline set by the Thabo Mbeki administration (yes, this has been going on that long) – South Africa is still a long way from completing the project. Even in a bad scenario, it should have been done and dusted in the early years of the Jacob Zuma administration.

    Zuma, of course, stuffed the communications ministry with a series of corrupt, incompetent or (at best) ineffective politicians. Not surprisingly, little progress on migration happened on Zuma’s watch. Yunus Carrim was something of an exception — he at least seemed to have the desire to get stuff done — though Zuma quickly fired him, and for reasons that are yet to fully emerge in the public domain.

    Little has happened

    Sadly, little has happened since Ramaphosa took the reins in the Union Buildings in 2018. Several more deadlines – including one made by the president himself in last year’s state of the nation address – have gone flying by.

    Part of the problem is that Ramaphosa’s communications minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, seems to have more interest in interfering at the SABC — and potentially fomenting a crisis — than attending to the more pressing issues facing her ministry.

    Ndabeni-Abrahams is good at spinning PR – she calls press conferences when she’s under fire to try to talk up the work of the communications department and to tell the media – and the broader public – how much the “ANC cares about you” and how much it “loves you”. But when it comes to delivering what matters, like digital migration, she is largely absent.

    To be sure, worse ministers have gone before her in the communications portfolio – things really hit rock bottom when Zuma installed Faith Muthambi there. But Ndabeni-Abrahams has demonstrated through her inaction and her lack of urgency to get things done that she’s not the right person to be leading this important economic ministry. She is, however, a political ally of the president’s, so she’s probably there to stay.

    So, analogue switch-off starts next month, the president said. That is one promise that will almost certainly be met – Sentech, which has been well led in recent years, has deployed digital infrastructure countrywide and is champing at the bit to begin the switchover. Some rural areas can be switched off now with minimal disruption.

    The challenge is switching off all analogue transmitters within 12 months, especially in the big cities. Millions of indigent households still do not have digital set-top boxes, and distributing the hundreds of thousands of government-ordered boxes still sitting in Post Office warehouses (last time I checked) will take time and a big effort. Sentech has been charged with this project, taking it off the hands of the Universal Service & Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa), a perennially broken and corrupt organisation that was never up to the job.

    Only once restacking has been completed can mobile telecommunications operators begin to make use of that spectrum

    So, perhaps Ramaphosa is confident that with Sentech helping out, the digital migration train is finally departing the station. But that’s placing the weight of expectation on a state-owned enterprise that’s very much focused on, and geared towards, delivering services to other businesses – like the SABC and e.tv – and not to retail consumers.

    Remember MyWireless, Sentech’s last (and only) attempt to launch a business-to-consumer offering? It was a disaster because Sentech simply wasn’t geared to deliver to a consumer market. While delivering set-top boxes and aerials to households can (and must) be project managed – and Sentech will work with partners to do the installations – it’s still a significant deviation from its main focus as an organisation. I hope it gets it right. It has a better foundation to do so than Usaasa.

    Digital dividend

    I don’t mean to be overly pessimistic about the likelihood of Ramaphosa’s March 2022 deadline being met. But all historical evidence — the dozens of missed deadlines — suggests it simply won’t happen by then.

    Remember, too, that analogue switch-off is only the first part of the digital migration project. Once the analogue transmitters have been switched off, a complex “digital restacking” needs to take place, during which time broadcasters will be moved out of the “digital dividend” bands and into lower frequencies. That restacking requires careful planning and management.

    Only once restacking has been completed can mobile telecommunications operators like Telkom, MTN and Vodacom begin to make use of that spectrum – which, after all, is the main reason for the project in the first place, to free up spectrum for mobile Internet services.

    The author, Duncan McLeod, argues that broadcasters and mobile operators may have to learn to co-exist in the same radio spectrum frequencies

    Unless it’s delayed by the courts (a distinct possibility), communications regulator Icasa will license spectrum in the digital dividend bands at the end of next month. But with the analogue broadcasters still using that spectrum, what happens after March? If the mobile operators simply start using that spectrum – which, according to Icasa, they will be entitled to do – it will cause interference with television broadcasts across the country. And, no doubt, broadcasters will interfere with broadband signals. It’s a mess!

    Until the full digital migration project has been completed, broadcasters and telecoms operators may simply have to work together to try to mitigate against harmful signal interference as far as possible for years into the future.

    I wish I could end this column on a more positive note. But a year from now, when Ramaphosa stands up in parliament to deliver the 2022 state of the nation address, what promises will he make then about digital migration?  And will anyone believe him?  — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media

    • Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral


    Cyril Ramaphosa Duncan McLeod Icasa MTN Sentech Telkom top Usaasa Vodacom
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleEllies to shut down manufacturing arm, blames TV migration delays
    Next Article The future of print in the digital workplace

    Related Posts

    Vodacom, Maziv deal now looks likely after CompCom U-turn

    8 July 2025

    Icasa publishes new draft regulations for digital TV

    8 July 2025

    Still in play: Ramaphosa banks on talks to ease US tariff blow

    8 July 2025
    Company News

    Samsung unfolds the future with thinnest, lightest Galaxy Z Fold yet

    9 July 2025

    Huawei supercharges South African SMEs with over 20 new eKit products

    9 July 2025

    Webtonic cracks the talent code with AWS-powered TonicHub

    9 July 2025
    Opinion

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.