Pretoria – Two indigent households in Mphambo village, outside Malamulele, will on Friday receive their own television sets as part of the Mandela Month programme.
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi will wrap up her programme for Mandela Month by visiting the village as part of her nation-wide campaign to educate South Africans about the television revolution of migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting, commonly known as digital migration, which is also abbreviated as DTT.
“As government, we are keeping Madiba’s legacy of caring and promoting equality for all in our country. We are also going to give the two poor families free Set Top Boxes (STBs). We want our people to realise that indeed, digital migration is a reality,” said Minister Muthambi.
The DTT Imbizo is aimed at making South Africans to understand that digital migration involves shifting broadcasters from analogue to digital signals.
In order to view digital television signals on an ordinary analogue television set, consumers will need a Set Top Box (STB). The STBs convert the digital broadcasting signal for reception on an ordinary analogue television set.
If viewers have not acquired a set top box by time the analogue signal is switched off, they will no longer be able to view the existing terrestrial television broadcasting services.
Registration of households that qualify to receive free subsidised government STBs will also take place during the awareness campaign.
Since Minister Muthambi officially launched the registration of STBs in the Northern Cape last year, over 12 000 households have registered with the South African Post Office to receive the STBs.
The department will announce the analogue signal switch-off date when more than 80% of households across the country have been migrated to the digital television platform.
The public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), has a strong radio presence at the village, as residents are able to listen to Munghana Lonene, Phalaphala and Thobela FM.
However, the same cannot be said about the public broadcaster’s three television channels as the only channel with a good reception is SABC3, while the presence of both SABC 1 and 2 is bad. - SAnews.gov.za
