The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has increased public awareness of the Broadcast Digital Migration (BDM) programme in light of the approaching deadline for applications for government-subsidized Set-Top Boxes (STBs) in order to make sure the message is received by South Africans.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, minister of communications and digital technologies, stated on Thursday that “we adopted a multi-prong and multi-channel approach to drive the message to our countrymen regarding BDM and the final date of applications of the 30th of September 2022.”
Ntshavheni said the department is broadcasting important messages on all of the public radio stations owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) through at least five slots per radio station every day.
Additionally, the message is carried three times a day on each of the three SABC television stations.
The SABC has been designated as the leader in promoting the broadcasting of awareness messages to the South African people in collaboration with community broadcasters.
In terms of community broadcasters, we’re collaborating with 96 of them, and they broadcast the BDM message three times every day as well.
In order to inform people about digital migration, driving registrations, and STB installations, we have teams working in every province.
The Minister stated, “We appreciate the support of the South African Local Government Authority (SALGA) and the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders and their provincial chapters for the collaborative work with both councillors and traditional leaders in the coordination of localised community meetings.
The Minister visited Ward 86 Lwandle in the Strand in the Western Cape last week and heard from STB beneficiaries who were pleased with the quicker turnaround between applications and installations.
“Through our partnership with SALGA, ward councillors will serve as service points where STB application forms can be picked up and returned for transmission to the post offices, depending on demand. This is significant since it facilitates community access to the application forms.
As seen on the platforms of the department and other collaborating entities, Ntshavheni added, “We are also utilising the social media platforms to further communicate the message to the public of South Africa.
The Minister said that the BDM process’s delays had hampered the growth of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry and delayed the country’s adoption of broadband, particularly in rural and suburban areas.
Installations of and registrations for STBs
In order to assess the progress made in issuing STBs to the general population, the Minister also paid visits to post offices in the Northern Cape, Northwest, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Free State, and Eastern Cape.
“We are confident that none of the recipients who were issued STBs have any lying around the post offices. We facilitated that non-issued STBs are provided to registered households in the post offices where we discovered them, and excess stock was moved as a result.
In the remaining Gauteng, KZN, and Western Cape provinces, we intend to finish our SAPO evaluation in August, the Minister stated.
A decrease in STB applications and registrations may be seen given that the overall number of new households between April 2022 and July 2022 is currently 61 155, or an average of 15 288 registrations per month.
“We now have almost 244 000 installations to finish based on the combined number of registrations and installations, including the rolled over numbers from KZN and EC provinces owing to flooding.
“As we approach closer to deciding the precise date of the final Analogue switch-off, which we will conduct consultations on, we will continue to examine registrations for the time up to September.
“We are working to increase the number of STB installers we have nationwide. I’m happy to inform the nation that 44% of our installer companies, or 473 of them, are owned by women as we commemorate the 66th anniversary of the start of Women’s Month on August 9th,” she remarked.
On Friday, the Minister plans to meet with these female installers to discuss issues related to digital migration as well as how we can help them participate in and expand their enterprises in the ICT technical domains.
“Our dedication to the fight for the complete liberation of women from economic marginalisation, gender-based violence, and any other form of discrimination against women is not merely symbolic; it is deliberate, determined, and uncompromising.
The girl child and future generations of women owe us these things because they deserve to live in a society where everyone is treated equally, Ntshavheni added.