Communications Dept's handling of digital migration an 'unmitigated disaster', say MPs

CAPE TOWN - Members of Parliament say the delays in the migration from analogue to digital by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has been an "unmitigated disaster".

The department briefed the communications and digital technologies portfolio committee on Tuesday, acknowledging that they won’t be able to meet the December switch-off deadline.

The SABC has also called for the process to migrate to digital to be delayed by another 12 months.

The department told the committee that almost half a million South African households would be without television when the switch-off deadline arrives.

Minister Solly Malatsi said the looming deadline had left them with a dilemma.

"The choices that confront us now would be, one, if we proceed with the analogue switch off, we are going to leave hundreds of thousands of members of the public behind."

Committee chairperson Khusela Sangoni Diko said they'd missed the deadline by a decade and it's likely they will miss the next deadline.

"Minister you said there were shortcomings in the process. I think that, I don’t want to be called alarmist, but I think this issue is really an unmitigated disaster."

The SABC also presented its plan to introduce a streaming service as a response to the retail market and the "missing middle" who don’t qualify for government-subsidised decoders.