Minister Faith Muthambi and Premier Supra Mahumapelo in Rustenburg for digital migration imbizo
Government is committed to digital migration and will give 100% subsidy to poor communities. As part of this move, the government will provide five million set-top boxes (STBs) to poor households who have an income of less than R3 200. That’s according to Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi.
Muthambi was in Rustenburg today accompanied by North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo, as they went house to house on a broadcasting digital migration awareness campaign.
“One of our responsibilities is communication, to make contact with our people, to see how they live and get feedback so that they can tell us what they want. This is what was exciting about our imbizo today. We urge our indigents to visit their nearest post offices to register for free set-top boxes,” said Minister Muthambi.
Premier Mahumapelo said he was excited that for the first time in South Africa poor people will be able to receive quality broadcast.
“We have been doing door-to door visit to speak to communities and try to resolve their problems in the spirit of saamwerk saamtrek. This imbizo dovetails North West Province’s VTSD (Villages, Townships and Small Dorpies) initiative, which is aimed at addressing the unequal distribution of resources and services and ultimately ensuring that our people who live in villages, townships and small towns are prioritised in terms of economic development and service delivery,” said the elated Mahumapelo.
Stakeholders present during today’s awareness campaign included Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), Post Office, the Office of the Premier of North West, the Department of Communication and SABC Broadcast Facilities.
SABC Broadcast Facilities Regional Manager Victor Thabeng said digital migration would make television viewing more pleasurable as the signal is clearer compared to analogue.
“What we are doing here today is to demonstrate the migration from analogue to digital, showing our communities the difference between analogue and digital with all its added advantages,” said Thabeng
Department of Communications official Lawrence Monyai said South Africa was finally starting with the digital migration. He revealed that the country will start rolling out digital migration in the Northern Cape before moving to other provinces.
For enquiries:
Mr Brian Setswambung
Acting Provincial Head of Communication
Cell: 084 702 3775 / 076 012 4501
E-mail: bsetswambung@nwpg.gov.za
