Opposition MPs united against communications minister
20 May 2015
News
By Brett van den Bosch
It is a rare thing in the world of politics for representatives of different parties to agree on anything. Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, achieved the almost impossible when she presented her latest budget vote speech to the National Assembly, by uniting opposition MPs in a vitriolic attack against her and her department.
Unsurprisingly, the most contentious issue was once again the broadcasting digital migration (BDM) debacle. Proclaiming on the one hand that the programme “remains a flagship of the department,” Muthambi in the next breath conceded that South Africa will not meet the 17 June 2015 analog switch-off date as set by the International Telecommunications Union. Equally damning, she stated that the Department of Communications (DOC) is “ready to consult with Cabinet on the digital signal switch-on date” – a tacit admission that even this critical step in the process is still up in the air.
Muthambi announced that her department has identified R22 million (of the R1,281 billion total budget it has requested) for a public awareness campaign to be launched in the coming weeks. She also anticipates that the rollout of set-top boxes will be completed in the next 18 to 24 months.
The DOC came under heavy fire from MPs of opposition parties for its budget vote speech, with some going so far as to once again call into question the wisdom of President Jacob Zuma’s decision last year to split the roles of communications and telecommunications into separate departments. The Democratic Alliance shadow minister of communications, Gavin Davis, was particularly scathing in his criticism, and called on Zuma to scrap the failed experiment and reunite the two departments.
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