Communications minister Faith Muthambi's budget vote speech yesterday again prompted calls for president Jacob Zuma to scrap the twin communications and telecommunication ministry set-up - a year after Zuma announced the new configuration.
Responding to the Department of Communications (DOC) budget speech yesterday, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications Gavin Davis reminded Parliament "we live in the age of convergence - where traditional broadcasting is rapidly merging with new digital telecommunications technology".
"This is why it never made sense to create separate communications departments. As a result, we have an Independent Communications Authority that doesn't know which minister it should account to," said Davis.
He also argued the entities expected to roll out digital migration are accounting to Muthambi, even though they legally fall under the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, under minister Siyabonga Cwele.
"Worst of all, we have the unnecessary duplication, inherent contradictions and overall lack of policy coherence that has resulted from splitting the departments. Let me give one important example of this.
"On the 14 November 2014, the telecommunications minister [Cwele] gazetted the National Integrated ICT Policy Discussion Paper for public comment. An entire chapter of it is devoted to broadcasting, including regulation, language diversity, the funding and mandate of the SABC, and media diversity and development.
"Yet, two days before, no doubt in anticipation of the release of the ICT discussion paper, minister Muthambi announced she would be doing her own broadcasting policy review - on precisely the same topics covered in the ICT discussion paper. What a waste of time, energy and resources," Davis noted.
If minister Muthambi had not spent the last year meddling with the Digital Migration Policy, and waging an obsessive turf war to control the process, it is unlikely we would be in the embarrassing position we now find ourselves in.
Gavin Davis
He also pointed out, in a few weeks, on 17 June, SA would face "humiliation on a global scale".
"Because, on that day, we will miss the International Telecommunication Union deadline to switch over from analogue to digital television. If minister Muthambi had not spent the last year meddling with the Digital Migration Policy, and waging an obsessive turf war to control the process, it is unlikely we would be in the embarrassing position we now find ourselves in."
No substance
Ovum senior analyst Richard Hurst dismissed Muthambi's speech as "a lot of pie in the sky stuff", saying there is little of substance to be gleaned from it. "There's a lot of 'in the future we'll do this' and 'in the future we'll do that', but there is nothing concrete about what is being done now," he points out.
Hurst says it is clear Muthambi is toeing the party line and telling the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee what it wants to hear.
Reacting to Muthambi's comments about digital migration, Hurst describes them as "ancillary. Digital migration is a football that we have been kicking around for so long now, it has become truly meaningless.
"Her announcement that SA is concluding bi-lateral agreements with neighbouring countries to lessen the impact of cross-border frequency interference, once we miss the digital migration deadline next month, really elicits an 'ok, so what?' reaction," he says.
Hurst also questions Muthambi's statement that the DOC anticipates to expedite the roll out of set-top boxes to be completed in the coming 18 to 24 months, so SA can switch off analogue signal.
"She has given herself a timeline of 18 to 24 months, but how rigid is this? Do we really foresee that this will happen?"
ICT commentator Adrian Schofield notes Muthambi's announcement that government is working to conclude bilateral agreements with six neighbouring countries, to minimise cross-border radio frequency spectrum interference when SA misses the digital TV deadline, is mostly meaningless.
There's a lot of 'in the future we'll do this' and 'in the future we'll do that', but there is nothing concrete about what is being done now.
Richard Hurst
"In many cases, our neighbours are not much further ahead than we are with digital migration, so interference is not likely to be a big problem for us. Once again, it is the lack of spectrum that is the actual problem."
Schofield says it is clear government has still not grasped the concept of empowering growth and development through technology, which has put the country 20 years behind the rest of the world.
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