Deputy Speaker, it is a month since the Minister of Communications, Dina Pule, one more time put the brakes on South Africa's transition to digital broadcasting. In her budget speech on May 21 she dropped the bombshell. The digital migration policy dealing with set-top box control was being revised again. Since then, there has been little clarity.
A meeting held this week with industry stakeholders left them in the twilight of uncertainty. Tomorrow they are due minutes of this meeting, but they still don't know whether this industry is worth investing in, whether they need to retender to manufacture the boxes or whether they will be adequately protected against imports.
An entire multibillion rand set-top box assembly industry has been sitting in the starting blocks for seven years, waiting for decisions that never come, as policies and strategies are repeatedly revised or corrected and deadlines are repeatedly missed.
Is the Minister trying to help her friends with the many lucrative government tenders associated with digital broadcast migration and set-top box supply? Her expressed favourite tender for the access control system that awaits the SABC's decision comes in at R148 327 998. The also-ran's pitch is R99 161 420 million. That is R50 million less than the Minister's pal's. It is time for Minister Pule to give straight answers, if she dares.