The African National Congress (ANC) conference has given the South African government until June 2019 to complete the movement from analog to digital broadcast technology. The initial deadline, which was June 2015, has already been missed by the government, as determined by the International Telecommunication Union, due to a legal dispute between the government and broadcasters over whether the encryption of digital signals.
Jackson Mthembu, the chairperson of the ANC NEC subcommittee on media and communications, who is also the ANC party’s chief whip in parliament, said, “Conference has directed the government that the latest time that they give to government to migrate fully and not partially, from analog to digital, is June 2019 and there will be no extension. The NEC subcommittee has been tasked with overseeing all the paths to this migration.”
According to him, it has been resolved by the national conference to improve the participation of black business people in the print media broadcast, and telecommunications industries. “Conference has ordered the government to speedily transform paid television market and ensure that there is no barrier to entry by in particular black people, black entrepreneurs and black industrialist in the paid television segments. We need to effect this radical economic transformation in that area of work as a matter of urgency.”
He also disclosed that ANC deployees in government should also go through political communication training, which is scheduled to start in the next six months, as a trial to improve relations with the public and hinder them from always relying on official communicators of the party to spread ANC messages.
