Progress report by Minister on analogue switch off

This premium content has been made freely available

Communications and Digital Technologies

29 March 2022
Chairperson: Mr B Maneli (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

Video

Table Committee Reports

The Portfolio Committee on Communications convened on a virtual platform to receive an urgent update from the Minister on progress of the analogue switch-off (ASO). The Minister said she suspected that there were members on the SABC board who were working with other broadcasters to attempt to deter the ASO progress, as evidenced by the correspondence between herself and the SABC board which had been leaked to the media. In addition, she pointed out the inconsistency in the information provided by the board in a letter dated 7 March compared to what had been submitted in its reports for the first three quarters. This had led to her decision to institute a provisional withdrawal of the SABC’s quarterly reports from Parliament until a correct version could be determined by the entity. Her briefing also explained the impact on the ASO process of the high court’s judgment to extend the switch off date to June 30, and its implications for the work of the Department.

In discussion, Members enquired about the implications of the Minister’s decision to withdraw the SABC’s tabled report, the Department’s subsequent actions following the leak, its measures to assist the Post Office to ensure that the disadvantaged section of the population would not be excluded, the policy for digital migration, the effect of the court’s new switch off date on those who had not made their applications yet, and its measures to ensure that all qualified households would have access to television news.

Members suggested that the SABC should be afforded an opportunity to explain to the Committee what had transpired between the Minister and the SABC board. They urged the Minister to intensity the Department’s efforts to raise awareness of the ASO and the revised date, and try to reach out as widely as possible. They were concerned about the non-responsiveness of the WhatsApp platform in the ASO application process, as well as the severity of the several important issues that existed at the SABC. They were of the view that those issues needed to be investigated more deeply, apart from the leak of the correspondence and the ASO process.

Meeting report

Urgent update on analogue switch off progress

Ms Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, provided the Committee with an update on progress with the analogue switch off (ASO). She wanted to bring the Committee’s attention to the events which had taken place subsequent to her decision to determine 31 March as the ASO date.

On 7 March 2022, the Minister had received a letter from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) indicating that the entity had suffered a revenue loss due to a loss of viewers. Since there was a case due to be heard between 14 and 15 of March, she had decided to delay her response to the SABC, as she was at that time concerned with a possible leak if she had responded. The events that followed affirmed the Minister’s suspicion, as the letter which came from the SABC dated 7 March had not been leaked, whereas her response to the SABC dated 24 March was leaked to the media. Her response to the SABC after the entity had issued a statement was also leaked to the media. That summarised the context in which the Department had found itself at the time.

In the response letter that the Minister sent to the SABC dated 24 March, she had indicated that she had requested Parliament to withdraw the Quarter 1, 2 and 3 reports that the entity had submitted to Parliament. The Minister provided as justification that the SABC had provided both performance and financial information which it had sent to the Department and National Treasury, which was inconsistent with the information contained in the letter dated 7 March. The Minister had also clearly stated the discrepancies in her response letter.

The problem had arisen when the SABC released a media statement in response to the Minister’s reply, instead of directly replying to her as it ought to have done. The Minister believed that type of behaviour was unwarranted and unacceptable since the SABC had now placed in the public domain two versions of information that were contradictory to one another. One version was the one from its letter dated 7 March, and the other was the one that the Minister had submitted to Parliament as the accounting officer, in line with s65(1) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

Following that, the Minister had written to the SABC board indicating that should the entity continue to allow two versions of the entity’s performance, as well as financial information, to prevail in the public sphere, she would have no option but to withdraw the entity's report from Parliament, as she would not want to be accused of misleading Parliament. She requested the SABC determine which set of information was accurate. The Minister had also written to the Speaker of Parliament indicating that the Q1, Q2 and Q3 reports that she had submitted to Parliament may not be accurate.

In summary, the SABC had indicated in its letter to the Minister dated 7 March that it had experienced a revenue loss due to the loss of viewers because of the provincial switch offs. That statement did not correspond with the information contained in the SABC's submission to Parliament for its performance in Q1, Q2 and Q3. In that version, which the entity had submitted, the SABC had reported the loss of advertising revenue in Quarters 1 and 2, which was before the announcement of the switch off. In Quarter 3 when the switch off announcement was made, the SABC had seen an increase in its advertising revenue.

Further, the Minister denied the SABC’s allegation as untrue that millions of people would be deprived of public broadcasting after the switch off. The government’s statistics showed that all the qualified households, including those which had applied, were less than 1.5 million in total. The government was also committed to helping to connect households to satellite boxes, and the application process remained open to date.

Because the Department was funding the SABC’s turnaround strategy, due to the discrepancy of information, the Minister had approached the Minister of Finance requesting him to put a halt to its funding for the SABC. As a result of that, the SABC requested a meeting with the Minister, which was due to take place before the end of the week.

She described the situation at the SABC as continuously improving. The Department, supported by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and Vodacom, was in court with E-TV on the issue of determining whether the Minister had the authority to determine the cut-off date for the analogue switch off. The argument being brought forward by E-TV was the lack of consultation from the Department, which had led to millions of people being excluded from watching TV. She said that it was untrue, because the consultation process had commenced in early 2006, and E-TV had always been a part of the process. In terms of consultation, the Minister was required to consult only the Cabinet, based on the conditions set by ICASA regulations.

She explained that for people to be able to watch TV, the country must have digital terrestrial television (DTT) network coverage. The current government and Cabinet were caring and always strived to assist the poor. Although no policy required the Minister to connect people to satellite reception, the caring Cabinet had decided to connect them. In addition, for those households to be connected, those households first had to register. To date, there were 1.5 million households that had registered.

Cabinet had decided that those who had registered before 31 October  2021 would be connected before the analogue switch off date. It was for that reason that the Minister herself had been unavailable for the past few weeks because she had been out in the provinces to ensure that people who had applied on time were indeed being connected. In the recorded documents in court, it stated that the Department had submitted a report dated 14 March that there remained 507 000 households to be connected. Government’s commitment had been to connect 1.2 million households. To date, the Department had connected over 900 000 satellite boxes and still had 300 000 satellite boxes to be distributed in the country.

The Minister explained that the court's judgment instructed government to ensure that those who had applied on time by 31 October 2021 -- which were the 507 000 households -- must be connected by 30 June 2022. The newly extended court’s date, which the Minister had noted, also coincided with the date when the spectrum was due to be vacated by broadcasters and signal distributors. The court had also determined that E-TV’s behaviour was unacceptable, as it was known for derailing the ASO process. Furthermore, the Minister added that the Court’s ruling affirmed the following:

  • The reciprocity of rights -- that with every right comes an obligation;

  • It was government’s responsibility to assist households to watch TV, and government had the prerogative to determine the set of criteria;

  • It was unreasonable to allow a situation where unknown variables, such as unregistered users, would hold all citizens hostage and deter government from upholding its international commitment;

  • Government had done enough to connect households, and it was nearly impossible for it to identify who else the qualified users were without having people registering.

 

Discussion

Dr M Basopu (ANC) enquired about the implications of the Minister’s decision to withdraw those tabled reports from Parliament. He reminded the Minister that Members had scrutinised, deliberated and adopted those reports. He therefore wanted to know what the implications were for Members of the Committee in terms of their oversight roles.

He said the Committee, as the oversight body, had a responsibility to decide on whether it would have access to the correspondence between the Minister and the SABC board. His belief was that to enable the Committee to make an informed decision, it should be furnished with more information.

He condemned the deliberate leaking of information. He asked what action the Department had subsequently taken to address the issue. He suggested the SABC board should be part of the Committee’s next meeting.

He commented that the overall picture of the SABC painted by the Minister was not satisfactory.  

Mr S Malatsi (DA) concurred with his colleague that he also believed that the appropriate way of handling the matter would be for the Committee to engage with the SABC. The engagement would not only help Members to reach a more informed decision, but also would afford the SABC an opportunity to present their side of the story. His impression was that the situation between the Minister and the SABC was tense -- it was so tense that it was even affecting parliamentary activities such as the withdrawal of the SABC’s tabled report.

Commenting on the dates of the ASO, he believed that the deferral was the responsible thing to do. There was consensus amongst stakeholders that there would be sections of the population that might be left out after the ASO. She urged the Minister to accelerate the raising of awareness for public registration, since his observation was that the awareness had not reached as broad an audience as it should have. He emphasised that the registration process should be an inclusive one.

Ms T Bodlani (DA) noted that no policy had been developed for digital migration. She asked the Minister to elaborate on the reason for this since it had taken the country 15 years to get to this stage.

She was concerned about the non-responsiveness of the programme’s WhatsApp platform. She had been receiving messages from civil society organisations raising such issues, as well as comments on the application process not being zero-rated. She asked for the Minister’s comment on that.

She highlighted the role of the Post Office as one of the key stakeholders in the application process. Members of the Committee were well aware of the challenges which the Post Office faced. What interventions had the Department put in place to ensure that the poor, the old, the unemployed, as well as the youth, were not excluded from the application process?

Ms Bodlani remarked that the biggest issue which stakeholders had was the timeline which the court had extended to 30 June. She also recalled the Minister’s previous engagement with the Committee, at which she had indicated that her Department still needed an extra six months to process all the outstanding applications. Given the extended new deadline, she wanted to know whether this new date would qualify those who had not made applications by the old date, to make their applications now.  

Ms N Kubheka (ANC) asked the Minister whether it would be possible for Committee Members to assist those who had not yet registered. She also suggested the Department should have an advertising slot for those who had not yet registered, and to keep on advertising the ASO.

She agreed with Mr Malatsi that the Committee should invite the SABC to the Committee, especially given that the withdrawal of those reports that had been tabled would cause complications for the Committee.

She noted the Minister’s side of the story and her commitment to adhere to the court’s deadline.

Mr W Madisha (COPE) agreed with the other Members’ inputs and welcomed the court’s decision of an extension. He very much wanted to engage with the SABC board, because he felt that the issues at stake could be much deeper. The information brought to the Committee by the Minister was extreme and showed that there was a lot of corruption and terrible things happening at the entity and to the country. He emphasised that the SABC belonged to the people of South Africa.

Mr L Molala (ANC) remarked that the issue around the SABC was not new for the Committee, but he was still disturbed by the whole situation. (Due to bad connectivity, Mr Molala was disconnected from the platform.)

Minister’s response

Minister Ntshavheni clarified that what she proposed to do was a provisional withdrawal of the SABC’s quarterly reports. Her decision was based on the fact that the information provided by the SABC in the letter dated 7 March contradicted the content in its quarterly reports, so s50(1) of the PFMA would require her to request the withdrawal and afford the SABC an opportunity to provide the accurate information. She pointed out that there could not be two sets of information in the public domain. Once the SABC had stated which version of the information was correct, the other version would be completely withdrawn.

She suggested to the Committee that there was no point in the Committee calling the SABC to the Committee prior to the record being set straight. Her action to call for the provisional withdrawal was justified, as it was the Minister’s role as required by law to inform Parliament should there be any inconsistency in the entities’ quarterly reports.

She suspected that there was a part of the SABC board that wanted to assist the E-TV case. She stressed that the SABC was not immune to being captured, as it had been captured by other broadcasters in the past. What the Minister wanted to see was the SABC admitting to having been used by other broadcasters, and to account for their actions.

The Minister said Members of the Committee would have access to all the correspondence between herself and the SABC via the National Assembly Speaker. She hoped that this correspondence would furnish more details of what had transpired between herself and the SABC between 7 March and 28 March.  

She explained why she was confident that the information had been deliberately leaked from the SABC. On 7 March, the SABC had sent her a letter to which she had not responded until 24 March. That letter was not leaked. As soon as the Minister responded, that response letter was immediately leaked into the public domain. Similarly, on 27 March, when the Minister wrote to the SABC, that letter was also leaked. Both letters were sent to the chairperson of the SABC board, who had an obligation to distribute such letters to other members of the board.

Regarding what needed to be done following the leak, the Minister said she was seeking legal advice as to whether or not the entire SABC board needed to be vetted by the State Security Agency. In addition, given that the term of the current board may end soon, the Department may have to put in extra measures, such as compulsory vetting, to ensure that future appointees had been vetted and would be keeping classified information to themselves. This process would keep the Committee informed.

Minister Ntshavheni clarified that there was no tension between herself and the SABC board. In fact, they worked well together. She had supported them with the PFMA exemption, the TV license fee waiver, the submission for SABC funding, etc. She understood that she and some SABC members may have differences, but the stakes were too high this time. In her view, national interest superseded other issues. After it had been confirmed who was responsible for the leak, and determined which version of information was the correct one, the Minister would report to the Committee and discuss the appropriate consequence management measures.

Commenting on the court’s deferment of date, she said the Department had argued -- and the court had agreed -- that the right to be supported was matched by a responsibility to register. She thus encouraged civil society organisations, such as #SaveFreeTV, to join the Department’s effort to create this awareness campaign. Those organisations must not only claim to speak for the poor but needed to go out to get the poor people to register since government had not put a ceiling on the maximum number of households that would be connected, as it did not have the data as to how many households had analogue TV. In addition, the Department had paid the SABC R30 million and partnered with them to do this awareness campaign. It had urged that advertisements should be specific, encouraging viewers to go and register and get support. It had also partnered with community radio stations in all the provinces to convey the message in their own languages. The Department was also partnering with ward and local and district municipalities and councillors. It was currently extending this advertising to the traditional leadership.

She urged Members to utilise their constituency offices to collect applications.

In response to Ms Bodlani’s remark that no policy had been developed, the Minister pointed out that this was inaccurate. There was a formal policy called the Broadcasting Digital Migration which had been adopted in 2008 and was amended in 2011 and 2012 respectively. No provision in the policy stated that it was government's responsibility to subsidise satellite boxes. This had been a Cabinet decision, led by the ANC, because it was a caring party that wanted to ensure all poor people were being covered and able to receive information from TV.

She denied that the WhatsApp platform could be used for the application process. People used the platform to lodge complaints if their devices were not working. The site to which applicants could make their applications was zero-rated.

The Minister told Ms Bodlani that the court’s judgment had highlighted two things. Firstly, those users who had applied before 31 October 2021 must be connected before 30 June 2022. That date would also be the dual elimination period for the ending and switch off of analogue, and the full switch on of digital broadcasting. Secondly, for those who had applied between 31 October 2021 and 10 March 2022, they would be connected before 30 September. In the meantime, the Department was also procuring additional capacity to ensure that there would not be millions of people left behind without TV. However, she also acknowledged that the project could not be perpetual. Eventually, the Department would have to determine a time for the project to be closed, depending on the cut off dates and the number of applications that were still coming through after those dates.

Follow-up questions

Mr Madisha indicated that he would want to raise a number of issues with the SABC board in the next meeting.

Ms Z Majozi (IFP) commented on the issue of the set-top boxes, raising the concern that there were people who were struggling to listen to the news. She asked the Minister what the Department was doing to ensure that such an issue would not repeat itself again.

Minister’s response

The Minister clarified the processes that would happen now at the SABC, the proposed withdrawal of the SABC’s quarterly reports, as well as the recommended roles of the Committee. She had instructed the SABC to determine which version of the information was the correct one -- whether it was the one stated in the letter dated 7 March, or the one submitted in its quarterly reports. Once that process came to an end and the SABC had determined the correct version of information, she would inform Parliament of the outcome and the Committee then could decide on its plan of action.

The Minister responded to Mr Madisha that her Department and its entities were fully willing to subject themselves to the Committee’s oversight work. She assured him that the case for the SABC would not be closed once the correct version of information had been determined. Members of the Committee were welcome to ask any questions related to the Department, its entities or the SABC at any time they wished to.

She advised Ms Majozi not to concern herself with the SMSs, as those texts were very likely not coming from citizens but sponsored organisations, such as #SaveFreeTelevision. Their main purpose was to put pressure on Members to sway the Minister’s work in relation to the ASO.

Chairperson’s summation

The Chairperson appreciated the Minister’s presence in the meeting and her cooperation to help Committee fulfil its oversight work. This session had provided the South African public an opportunity to understand the progress and at what stage the matter was.

He understood the provisional withdrawal and recommended the Committee should get a formal referral from the Speaker for the consideration of the Committee.

He highlighted that the independence of the SABC board had been questioned many times. He agreed that the Committee should also engage with the SABC to hear their side of the story. The Committee must also draw lessons from this situation when considering the appointments to the new SABC board.

The Committee also had to ensure that South Africans had access to television services and that the change to the digital sphere did not negatively affect them.

He urged Members to intensify their effort to encourage people to register so that they could get support and be connected.

Committee matters

The Committee adopted the 2021/22 first and second quarter expenditure and financial reports of the Government Communication and Information Service (GCIS).

The Committee's minutes dated 22 and 29 March were duly adopted.

[the Committee held a seminar with the Wits link Centre on” Moving Forward to Smart Environments: From Outdated Policy to Building the Digital Economy for All. The seminar was not captured by PMG]

 

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: