South Africa’s Communications Minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, decided to turn off analogue broadcast systems by 30th June, 2022. South Africa’s constitutional court has however ruled against it. From its standpoint, this move by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies is unconstitutional.
It is important to note here that in 2006, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) made a regulation. They resolved that all member states in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East should transition from analogue to digital broadcasting systems by 2015. This, of course, applied also to South Africa as it is an African country and member of the ITU.
In 2008, in a bid to comply with this agreement by the ITU, the then Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies of South Africa, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, published a Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy (BDM Policy). The broadcast stated that the analogue system would end by 1st November, 2022. This 4 years before the ITU-proposed deadline. In the same vein, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in February 20221, said that the phased end of analogue transmitters would be concluded by the end of March this year.
Presently, anyway, traditional analogue broadcast systems are occupying the frequency bands between 700 MHZ and 800 MHZ. These could also be used for mobile data. Becoming digital, therefore, would free up those bands and make data services cheaper for the people.
On 5th October, 2021, the minister made a final call for all those who qualify for set-top-boxes (STBs) sponsored by the state. He beckoned on them to come register and set a deadline for 30th October, 2021. These STBs will enable households to continue viewing television even after the analogue is switched-off.
Why South Africa’s Constitutional Court Overturned the Decision
E.tv, MMA, and SOS weren’t satisfied with this and filed a petition against Ntshavheni to the High Court. This was so that millions of people who were yet to migrate to digital transmission wouldn’t be disconnected. Again, there was the need for a middle ground to be reached about the timing of the analogue switch-off. This is important so that more people are brought on board as regards the digital migration.
The following statistics were given in the Court’s judgement on 28th March this year. Out of over 14 million television sets in South Africa, 10.5 million were in line with digital transmission, and 3.75, were analogue. In light of this, the High Court resolved that 3 months would be enough for the minister to complete the installation of STBs in households with analogue television sets.
While dismissing the petitions from e.tv and co. in its final ruling, the High Court extended the analogue switch-off date to 30th June, 2022. After this ruling by the High Court, e.tv, MMA and SOS appealed the case against the minister in the Constitutional Court. This is because they felt the minister should consult the public before imposing the STB registration cut off date. He should have also consulted the public before deciding the analogue switch-off date too.
They were told by the court that the minister was within his original constitutional policy-making function. He had the right to determine the registration deadline for STBs and the analogue switch-off date. Nonetheless, it was both irrational and unlawful for him to set these dates without properly notifying the analogue broadcast providers and public.
Rounding Up,
Presently, both the decision of the minister and the order of the court are on hold. This will further delay South Africa from migrating to digital broadcasting. This means that services like mobile data will still be expensive. This is because there is no freed-up space on the frequency spectrum. Digital migration would have helped to reduce the prices of mobile data.
Until the whole matter is sorted out, the citizens would have to keep on managing.
In other news, Brendan Carr, commissioner of The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), on Tuesday, wrote to Apple and Google requesting that they remove TikTok from their app stores. This is because of “its pattern of surreptitious data practices”.
