Ha-Rabali-The roll-out of Free Set-Top Boxes (STBs) in Limpopo to poor TV-owning households in preparation of the switching-on of the digital television signal will start in Nzhelele area.
The announcement was made by Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Saturday during her Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) campaign at Rabali village in Makhado, Limpopo.
“You will recall that the Nzhelele area is not far away from the Beitbridge border, we’ve indicated as government that we are going to prioritise the border-lying areas in order to protect the array and the country from radio signal interference hence we are here with our focus public awareness campaign to inform the locals that DTT is a reality is around the corner,” Minister Muthambi explained.
“We are embarking on this consumer awareness campaign so that our locals can get ready before we roll-out the project and we have prioritised Nzhelele to be first border-lying area in this province to benefit from the free STB’s that we will be distributing to TV-owning poor households,” she said.
Another areas which would be prioritised for migration from analogue to digital will be the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) area in the Northern Cape, as well as border-lying areas in Mpumalanga, Free State and the North West provinces. Minister Muthambi said the inner part of the country will be migrated at the later stage of the roll-out programme.
The STBs will allow those still using analogue signal to access the digital signal and the government will provide free STBs to the five million poor TV-owning households across the country. Digital migration will see TV viewers enjoying quality picture and sound. –SAnews.gov.za
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi during a DTT campaign at Rabali village, in Makhado, Limpopo.
