SA News

Broadcasting Digital Migration

Minister of Communications Ms Faith Muthambi took the first digital terrestrial television milestone, the households registration process for set-top-boxes, to the Square Kilometre Array community of Keimoes, Kai Garib Municipality, Northern Cape on 2 October 2015. This is being followed by other events around the country.

The first free set-top-boxes were handed over on 17 December.

“This is a very important milestone in the digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration project. This means that households with television sets in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) area will now receive fully subsidised set-top-boxes once they have completed the registration process,” said Muthambi at the Keimoes event.

Households in the districts that form part of the SKA radio telescope must visit their local post office from the 1st of October 2015 to apply for a subsidised television decoder.

Read the full statement

Background

South Africa has started with the process of migrating broadcasting signals from analogue to digital. This is done as a results of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) resolution that countries in region 1 (including Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran) should migrate their broadcasting services from analogue to digital.

The Department of Communications (DoC) on 18 March 2015 gazetted the Amendment of the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy, issued under Government Gazette No 31408 on 8 September 2008.

Cabinet has approved the Amendment with the inclusion of the control system in the STB, which will be clearly defined when the policy is published, Minister in the Presidency responsible for Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe said at the post Cabinet media briefing in Cape Town on Thursday, 5 March 2015.

The issue of whether to include the control system in the STBs has been a source of disagreement amongst free-to air broadcasters for some time now, which impacted negatively on the ability of the country to implement the broadcasting digital television within the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) agreed timelines. The ITU’s agreed deadline for the switch-off of analogue television signals is 17 June 2015.  South Africa did not meet this date.

On 26 June 2015 the North Gauteng High Court dismissed etv’s case to encrypt STBs, among other things, with costs. The court has affirmed that the amendment to the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy as published was in the best interest of the South African television viewers.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi will soon announce the date for the migration of broadcasting services from analogue to digital. Bilateral Engagements will be concluded with our six neighbouring countries namely, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland in order to minimise cross border radio frequency spectrum interference.

Broadcasting digital migration simply defined means the migration of the broadcasting services from analogue broadcasting technology to digital technologies. The primary objective of digital migration is to clear the radio frequency spectrum currently occupied by broadcasters to enable the provision of wireless mobile broadband services and other innovative applications. Therefore STBs are to be used in the transition to enable free to air broadcasting services to migrate from analogue to digital television and will not be a permanent feature in the free to air broadcasting system in South Africa.

The Department of Communications believes that the provision of definition of the STB control system in the final policy will assist in clearing the confusion regarding the use of control system in the STBs. For the purposes of accelerating the migration of free to air broadcasting television from analogue to digital, control system will have the following meaning:

• control system does not mean a conditional access system nor does it mean an encryption of the signal to control access to content by viewers;
• control system refers to a security feature to encourage local electronic manufacturing sector;
• the STB must have minimal switching (on/off) security features to protect the subsidized STBs from theft or leaving SA borders; and
• must have capabilities to enable the provision of government information and services.

The new policy position does not in any way prohibit any broadcaster who will want to include conditional access in the provision of broadcasting services to its customers. It is the firm view of the Department that broadcasters who will want to do that should make their own investment in the acquisition of a conditional access system.

Government will provide free STBs to more than 5 million poor television household owners. This replaces the partial subsidy of 70% as previously approved in 2008. The distribution of the STBs will prioritise those households in the border region areas of the country to avoid and minimise signal interference between those regions and neighbouring countries. Details of the distribution of STBs will be announced soon by the Department. Home owners must be in possession of a South African ID and a TV licence.

STBs will be manufactured in South Africa. According to Minister Muthambi most of the manufacturing companies are ready to deliver as they were waiting for government to finalise its processes.

The Department will in consultation with Cabinet determine and announce the analogue signal switch-on and switch-off dates.

The need for the DTT programme derives from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) resolution, where countries in region 1 (including Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and the Islamic Republic of Iran) should migrate their broadcasting services from analogue to digital by 17 June 2015.

The main reason for the migration is to release valuable spectrum, which can be used for other services. Spectrum is scarce and we need to make efficient use of the spectrum available for more telecommunications and broadcasting services.

Failing to meet the 2015 deadline to switch off the analogue terrestrial TV signals means that South Africa is no longer protected against disruptions of radio waves that are used for analogue television broadcasts.

In terms of network readiness, the country is standing at 82%, while the broadcasting companies in the country, including the public broadcaster, are ready with regard to content.

Requirement for receiving a subsidised set-top box

South African households with a combined income of R3 200 or less qualify for a subsidised set-top box or decoder. Set-top box decoders will be necessary to continue watching television when South Africa switches to digital television transmission.

To qualify, the household members must also be South African citizens and have a valid television licence. Applicants should bring their identity book, proof of address, proof of income (in the form of an affidavit or salary slip) and television licence to the Post Office when they register. 

The registration of households for digital television decoders started on 1 October this year in the SKA area of the Northern Cape, where 2 000 households had registered for a set-top box by 26 November 2015. From 1 December, households in the Free State could also register.

Local contractors will be enlisted to install the satellite dish and decoder.

Where necessary, extra counter staff will be employed at the Post Office outlets to make sure long queues do not build up.

Households that do not qualify for a subsidised set-top box can buy a decoder from their local post office at a one-off cost with no monthly subscription fees. These set-top decoders will give access to more than 18 television channels, including the SABC channels, e-TV and community channels.

Dial the Go Digital call centre at 0800 11-11-88 for more information.

Source: SANews and Department of Communicarions

Follow us for the latest updates:

SA News

Public Participation Framework for Parliament and the Legislatures

Join the citizens' partnership to Develop a People’s Public Participation Framework for Parliament and the Legislatures

The Constitution requires that Parliament and the Legislatures provide a forum for the public consideration of issues and that they must:

• Receive petitions
• Facilitate public involvement in their legislative and other processes
• Conduct business in an open manner

Parliament and the Legislatures have been doing this and now wants to enhance public participation in their work. They want to deepen and broaden public participation. They want it seamlessly integrated into their programmes.

In developing a Public Participation Framework which meets these aims, they need your views. Some of the questions on which Parliament and the Legislatures need your comments are:

• How can public participation be deepened and made even more meaningful?
• How can the voices of people with limited access to resources be heard and taken into account?
• How can we improve our strategies and processes around public participation so that we become even more accountable and responsive to the people?

Please send your comments by post (Public Participation Framework Submissions, Parliament, PO Box 2164, Cape Town, 8000) or email (submissions@parliament.gov.za).

Check the media for details of public hearings and other activities.

Visit Parliament’s website or follow Parliament on Twitter or Facebook to get updates.

SA News

Home » About Government » Government Programmes

Technology for Sustainable Livelihoods

This is a programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). It aims to create jobs for communities by helping to establish small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). In particular, it makes use of technologies which can add value to SMMEs and makes them accessible to communities. At the same time, the programme helps to make these SMMEs successful by offering skills development and training.

The DST offers technological assistance in the following areas:

• Aquaculture: Communities are trained to farm indigenous fish as a business. They receive technology in terms of infrastructure (production cages) and training to manage a fish farm, including diseases and harvesting.
• Essential oils: These are valuable oils that are extracted from the leaves and flowers of plants. Communities benefit from skills development and training, and their businesses are linked to the local essential oils market.
• Indigenous medicinal plants:  Communities are taught to grow indigenous herbs commercially. These plants have special medicinal properties which have been scientifically proven. Communities receive training in farming methods and in how to start a commercial enterprise and their businesses are linked to local markets.

The DST does not support individuals, only communities and community groups. These communities are then helped to form a viable community business, in the form of a Section 21 Company or cooperative. In order to use these technologies and produce valuable crops in essential oils and indigenous medicinal plants, communities need to have access to suitable agricultural land.  Similarly, communities that want to benefit from fish farming must have access to irrigation dams.

Contact the DST Technology for Sustainable Livelihoods:   012 843-6421/18

Download more information on the Sustainable Livelihoods programme [PDF].

DAFF News

Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme (IFSNP)

By The SA Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF)

The department took an active role in arranging the World Food Day celebrations that were held in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal on 16 October 2006. In celebrating this initiative of the FAO, more than 186 countries joined hands with our country on World Food Day. This was also symbolic in the sense that it was on this day that the FAO was founded in 1945. The theme for 2006, “Investing in agriculture for food security”, highlighted the vital role of agriculture in ensuring that all people have access to sufficient food of a wide variety to lead healthy, active lives.

The event also marked the midway point of the 20-year period between the 1996 World Food Summit when the world’s leaders pledged to reduce poverty and food insecurity by half by 2015. The World Food Summit plan of action and the South African Constitution (which was enacted in the same year) recognise access to food and clean water as part of basic social rights. To take further steps toward achieving this objective, the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) will be expanded to all nine provinces. Altogether 10 % of the total CASP budget will also be aligned to projects that contribute directly towards food security. In line with the strategic goal of reducing food insecurity, a total of 66 364 households were provided with agricultural production packages in all the nine provinces during the third quarter of 2006/07.

The Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information Mapping System (FIVIMS) project was piloted in Ga-Sekhukhune district, Limpopo Province and launched during October 2006. As part of the national roll-out, food security profiles for the 13 rural nodes will be developed and baseline surveys conducted in three rural nodes.

In the light of the importance of food security in the nation’s development and the overall goal of improved welfare of the population, Government places high priority on several national policies and programmes, which outline the coherent goal to raise the nutritional levels, especially the more vulnerable sections of the population. Some of these initiatives include:

• Ziyazondla in the Eastern Cape Province
• Siyavuna in KwaZulu-Natal
• Asibuyele Masimini in Mpumalanga and a number of other Household Food Production Programmes countrywide.

Within the Social Sector Cluster we are challenged to take the lead regarding the implementation of the IFSNP. For this purpose, we collaborated with relevant stakeholders, including nongovernmental organisations, schools and communities in general, to assist in the development and dissemination of suitable technologies, information and training modules to provide assistance in increasing the levels of household food production.

Through ASGISA, a number of initiatives were embarked upon to address its objectives and this includes Project Gweb’indlala, which focuses on food security through infrastructure development, provision of key production inputs, facilitating market access, job creation and poverty alleviation. As part of popularising of ASGISA and to relieve poverty and alleviate food insecurity in the country, the department expanded the Household Food Security Programme to all nine provinces. This programme was first piloted in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces.

DAFF News

Vulnerable Workers on Farms, in Forestry and Fisheries Programme

• Call for expression for non-governmental organisations, community based organisations and other civil society organisation providing services to vulnerable workers on farms and in forestry and fisheries
• RESOLUTIONS OF THE NATIONAL SUMMIT ON VULNERABLE WORKERS IN AGRICULTURE,FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
• APPLICATION FOR FUNDING FOR PROJECTS TARGETING VULNERABLE WORKERS ON FARMS, IN FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
• A call to all non-governmental, community-based and other civil society organisations providing services to vulnerable workers on farms and in forestry and fisheries to register with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
• ‘n Beroep word gedoen op alle nie-regeringsorganisasies, gemeenskapgebaseerde en ander burgerlike gemeenskapsorganisasies wat dienste lewer aan kwesbare werkers op plase en in bosbou en visserye om te registreer by die Department van Landbou, Bosbou en Visserye
• NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOs), COMMUNITY BASED ORGANISATIONS (CBOs) AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS REGISTRATION FORM

DAFF News

Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP)

During the past two years agricultural support has been provided to land and agrarian reform projects, which contributes towards food security, job creation and poverty alleviation. Since the implementation of CASP in 2004/05, a total amount of R750 million has been allocated to this programme. Because delivery of agricultural support services is dependent on the capacity of provincial departments, we continued to direct the process of empowering the provinces with regard to planning, implementation, information dissemination and reporting.

The Micro-agricultural Financial Institutions of South Africa (Mafisa) provides access to finance for farmers, especially beneficiaries of the land restitution, redistribution and land tenure reform programmes. The Land Bank administers the credit scheme on behalf of the department and provincial departments provide assistance to access the scheme. Four development finance institutions are currently participating in the disbursement of Mafisa funds in the provinces.

Challenges experienced in implementing the scheme mainly included a lack of capacity and a lack of economic and/or financial experience at provincial departments. Intervention measures were instituted and provinces have now assigned Agricultural Economists to assist applicants with their operational plans. The process of training Credit Committees in collaboration with AgriSETA is also continuing.

During 2005/06 and 2006/07 amounts of R144 million and R196 million, respectively, were transferred from the department’s budget to the Land Bank. To date good progress has been made with providing loans and a total of 900 loans to the value of R24 million were approved by end of September 2006. Loans have been issued since January 2006 and progress is monitored on a continuous basis to fast-track implementation of the scheme.

A total of 84 agricultural farmer co-operatives have been established. These co-operatives are fully registered and linked to financial services and businesses. We facilitated the training and capacity building of all established cooperatives through accredited training institutions and colleges of agriculture.

To ensure the commercial viability of emerging farmers from a household food security level to commercial level, a farmer-to-farmer mentorship policy was approved. This policy will be piloted in four provinces on 36 projects. During 2007 a total of 36 extension officers will be trained in providing mentoring to farmers.

The agricultural marketing environment was reviewed and a report with specific recommendations to revisit the Agricultural Marketing Act will be submitted to the Minister. Good progress was also made with reviewing the agricultural trade strategy and the first draft, incorporating industry inputs, has been developed. The strategy will also incorporate the outcome of the marketing review process.

To develop a comprehensive agro-logistics strategy and an investment plan, a report on the status of agro-logistics in South Africa has been completed. The report is at present being discussed with other government departments such as Transport, Trade and Industry and public entities such as the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), Spoornet and the industry.

A total of 17 commodity-based agricultural marketing value chain profiles were produced and published. Farmers use these profiles to gain insight into the agricultural marketing structures of the different industries. In July 2006 the EFTA-Southern African Customs Union (SACU) agreements were signed for implementation in 2007. This will, however, also depend on the ratification procedures followed by the SACU partners. The trade negotiating position for free trade agreement between SACU and India has not been finalised yet because of a delay in negotiations as a result of the new government in India.

The department regards skills development as one of the critical areas for the success of ASGISA. About 800 emerging farmers received hands-on training in various fields of farm management at the Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute (GADI). Commodity-directed mentorship programmes were presented to a total of 10 000 farmers, while 2 251 farmworkers received adult basic education and training in line with the objectives of the draft transformation charter. All the participants in the programme are beneficiaries of the Agrarian and Land Reform Programme.

During 2006 several policies and strategies were developed to promote sustainable agricultural production. These include policies on animal improvement, aquaculture, wildlife ranching, range and forage, grain, vegetables, industrial and indigenous crops, ornamental plants, as well as biosafety.

Livestock farming by black emerging farmers is often characterised by overstocking and poor productivity, leading to overgrazing. The livestock development strategy was developed and is currently being implemented to address this challenge.

Production guidelines aimed at providing information to farmers, extension officers and other clients were also developed. These included guidelines for small-scale egg production, household broiler production, a management programme for a small-farm piggery, rabbit production for household use, animal traction, urban and peri-urban animal agriculture, milch goats, weaning of calves, beef cattle, veld management, fruit production, grain crops, vegetable production, industrial crops, ornamental plants and indigenous crop production.

Early warning climate advisories were issued to the agricultural sector on a monthly basis to assist farmers in managing climatic risks. An awareness campaign on broad risk and disaster management issues was also launched to create awareness on how to manage risks. A total of 62 470 farmers participated in the drought relief scheme. Altogether 52 259 of these were small-scale farmers and 10 211 commercial farmers.

DAFF News

Agricultural Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (AgriBEE)

The draft AgriBEE Charter was completed and submitted to the Minister for consideration and approval. In November 2006 the charter was discussed with the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs. Proposed changes were incorporated in the charter and it was handed over to the Minister of Trade and Industry for gazetting.

Good progress was made during 2006 with the testing of business models with selected commodity groups and local development organisations working on the best way to integrate emerging participants into mainstream agriculture. Evaluation and monitoring systems for AgriBEE activities are being set up and implementation and monitoring interactions will be conducted at national, provincial, regional and local levels. Selected service providers will conduct training workshops on the impact and relevance of AgriBEE on local municipality delivery levels and the agricultural sector during 2007.

Implementation of AgriBEE is based on the commodity/product value chain approach and diversified through ASGISA. This approach is integral to creating linkages, partnerships and networks for balanced, mutually benefiting results for all concerned. It will ensure enhanced competitiveness and sustainable development with improvement/expansion of the existing businesses, rehabilitation of ailing agricultural business concerns and expanded entry for new businesses in the sector.

As part of the process to unlock the full entrepreneurial potential in the sector, we have also been encouraging partnerships between established agricultural enterprises and emerging farmers and entrepreneurs. The grain strategy’s implementation plan is nearing completion and the fruit industry’s commodity action plan is in the process of being developed.

To empower youth and women to contribute towards the transformation and growth of the sector, the external bursary scheme and the experiential and internship programme were established. Since the introduction of the bursary scheme in 2003, a total of R18,9 million has been invested in students studying for various degrees within the identified scarce skills categories within the agricultural sector. A total of 383 bursaries have been awarded in the past four years and a further 100 bursaries are planned for 2007/08. About 160 graduates were placed as interns within the department and agricultural commodity organisations in 2006/07. Our aim is to inspire and support theentry of youth into the agricultural sector.