State is blind on SA’s plight

The move from an analogue TV signal was supposed to have been done by 2011, and it seems the legal actions against the government may not be over yet.

The Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy for South Africa was gazetted on 8 September, 2008. At the time, then communications minister Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri noted the “looming switch-on date on 1 November, 2008 requires us to work at a lighting speed concomitant with our business unusual strategy”.

Nearly 14 years of court cases and fumbling later, despite what incumbent Communications Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni wants, the system is plainly far from ready. When the country’s national broadcaster says it isn’t ready for the analogue switch-off, it’s time for government to take notice.

The SABC board noted on Friday the four provinces designated for switch-off this coming Thursday comprise 68% of South Africa’s poor. “As at February 2022 only 165,000 [set top boxes] out of the 2.9 million indigent households (5.7%) had been installed in the four outstanding provinces,” the SABC board noted.

Not a problem, Ntshavheni’s department stated yesterday. It has 1.4 million indigent applications for government’s free decoder and installation and it is going to install 1.2 million decoders in three days. Right.

If you believe this is possible, you’re probably still afraid of the 5G apparently contained in the various Covid vaccinations.

Bizarrely, a TV licence is not mandatory requirement when applying for a set-top box assistance.

Unfortunately, nor will you become a walking, talking, cellphone tower equipped with technology this country has yet to be equipped for should you be vaccinated.

The issue of set top boxes – meant to facilitate an admittedly good idea of better clarity, stronger signals and more channels – is also fraught with problems, and Sentech being given the tender at the 11th hour is raising a lot more than eyebrows.

Our appointed – not elected – ministers simply do not learn. There’s the R50 million donation to Cuba the department of international relations and cooperation recently gleefully announced to assist that country with its hungry. This showed just how blind government is to South Africa’s people who struggle to eat on a daily basis.

In 2021, SA taxpayers “loaned” Cuba R84.6 million. Then there were the Cuban doctors deployed in SA to help with Covid we paid R429 million for, and the army mechanics who came here to teach our guys how to fix our rickety vehicles at an alleged estimated cost of around R1 billion.

Exactly where all this money has gone once it landed in Cuba, is anyone’s guess. And while all this money is flowing out of SA, our children are dying from hunger.

While apartheid and colonisation have their own horror story to tell, the ANC government has been making up for lost time.

Simply take a look at the auditor-general’s reports, or the numbers coming out of the Zondo state capture reports, or the Special Investigating Unit which is making headway in recovering money stolen from the state.

The TV signal migration from analogue to digital is just another example of how well our current leaders have learned to ignore what people are saying.

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