CC image courtesy of GovernmentZA on Flickr.
South African communications minister Yunus Carrim forgot two important groups in his response to criticism over his digital migration policy, according to a column by the president of the National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components (NAMEC).
HumanIPO reported last month NAMEC, along with MultiChoice and the Association of Community Television South Africa (Act-SA), had accused Carrim of forming digital migration policy to benefit “certain narrow commercial interests”, accusations Carrim called an “act of desperation” intended to influence voters in the upcoming national elections.
Carrim released a statement in which he said MultiChoice could not speak for the poor, and charged too much for its services, locking many South Africans out as a result.
Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Times, NAMEC president Keith Thabo and electronic manufacturing sector chair Vijay Panday said Carrim’s “ill-tempered” response had “turned a deaf ear” to the views of black-owned and community television sectors over the encryption in the set-top boxes necessary for digital television.
“Instead of acknowledging the many deficiencies in the option being pursued by the government — putting costly encryption software in the set-top boxes that millions of people will require to watch free to-air television channels such as SABC and e.tv — the Department of Communications has instead chosen to question the credentials of just one of his critics, MultiChoice,” the column said.
“We have no mandate to speak for community TV stations, but it is worth reminding the minister of a statement by their representative body Act-SA last week, warning that the government’s preferred option ‘will undoubtedly contribute to killing off the community television sector’.”
