As government leaders start the daunting work of splitting the Department of Communications (DOC) into two, concerns are being raised that digital migration will fall off the radar in the shuffle, scuttling any near-term benefits of the move.
Before Yunus Carrim was dropped as communications minister, he had been trying to resolve an impasse that had been holding up migration for 18 months. However, his middle-of-the-road decision on set-top box controls was not accepted by the industry, and this issue will now fall to a third minister to try and resolve.
Digital migration stalled in 2012 when etv took former, disgraced, minister Dina Pule to court over controls. Pule had mandated Sentech to deal with the issue, and etv argued this was illegal.
Incomplete
Carrim's last progress report, issued on Friday, indicates the issue of set-top box controls will now have to be dealt with by the incoming administration, which will have to take a decision soon. However, the state has yet to provide more clarity over how the split of the former DOC will be implemented practically.
On Sunday, president Jacob Zuma announced a new department, which is set to take over some of the DOC's previous mandate. The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, to be headed by Siyabonga Cwele, aims to ensure more value is derived out of the ICT sector, while the reconfigured DOC will be "responsible for overarching communication policy and strategy, information dissemination and publicity, as well as the branding of the country abroad".
The DOC, under Faith Muthambi, will also handle the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS), Brand SA, and the Media Development and Diversity Agency.
However, only new ministers will be able to clarify what roles their departments are set to play moving forward, says Bongani Majola, director of communications at the Presidency. A GCIS insider has said it could take a while before new roles become clear, while ministers were only sworn in late yesterday afternoon. The DOC this morning did not provide further clarity, but noted Cwele is in the process of a handover.
Endless process
Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications Marian Shinn says digital television is likely to fall off the radar while precise roles are being worked out, a process that could take as long as two years. She says SA can "kiss 2015 goodbye", referring to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) mid-2015 deadline for migration.
Shinn says resolving the "turf wars" over which specific function falls with which department will also delay the economic benefit of digital migration. Once broadcasters have moved off analogue, this space can be freed up so mobile operators can expand broadband coverage to more rural areas.
However, this process can only start about three years from when digital television is set to be turned on, Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub has said. Shinn says this so-called digital dividend is the "economic benefit of digital television. We are just stalling that."
Must happen
Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, says digital television cannot go off the radar, as so much hangs on it. "It will be one of the priorities of the new minister. Which new minister, though?"
With broadcasting under one department and telecommunications under another, the donga may well be wider than we can imagine, says Goldstuck. Ultimately, communications is the department most likely to handle migration, because both ICASA and the SABC fall under it, and those are the entities most directly involved, he says.
Goldstuck adds, because of "the foot-dragging and incompatible goals set by previous administrations, there was already no chance we would meet the ITU deadline". He says there must now be a sense of urgency and focus on the goal of migration.
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