South Africa's migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television is on hold once again after the high court in Pretoria in March granted broadcaster e.tv and others an urgent interdict preventing communications minister Solly Malatsi from proceeding with his plan to switch off analogue television broadcasts on 31 March.
Following the interdict, a second part of the legal case is pending, in which e.tv , Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition are seeking to have Malatsi's December 2024 decision to set 31 March 2025 as the analogue switch-off date declared unlawful.
The applicants also want the court to order the minister to determine a new deadline only after inputs from industry stakeholders have been taken into consideration. According to Malatsi, however, the communications department wants to avoid any further costly court proceedings.
"Earlier this year, the analogue switch-off, which was planned for the end of March, was halted by the courts," Malatsi said in his budget vote speech to parliament last Thursday. "Having taken note of the court's findings, we have given the department's legal representatives the mandate to ensure that we can find a non-litigious solution to this lingering issue."
MMA wants government to consider the 28 of South Africa's population who rely exclusively on analogue broadcasts for access to content, including information and news. "You can't just go ahead and switch it off," said Bird.
