Goodbye StarSat
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), along with officers from the South African Police Service, has raided pay-TV broadcaster StarSat’s headquarters to remove its broadcasting equipment.
This comes after StarSat refused to cease operations in the country after being instructed to do so by the regulator. Icasa previously warned that it would shut down StarSat itself if the broadcaster failed to comply.
According to a SABC News report, the raid commenced on Wednesday, 2 October 2024, with authorities disconnecting and confiscating StarSat broadcasting equipment.
StarSat marketing manager Jan Hendrik Harmse says officials also removed the company’s equipment to broadcast to countries in the rest of Africa rather than just South Africa.
“They started unplugging things. They started just ripping out all the equipment we need to broadcast, not just to South Africa, but to the rest of Africa as well,” said Harmse.
“As we speak, our customers have nothing showing on their screen, and many other countries in Africa are also black on screen.”
He explained that authorities didn’t bring the right technicians to know what they should have removed.
“We have no idea what the damage is. We only hope that we can resolve this with the courts because we have approached them,” said Harmse.
“We were there this morning before Icasa arrived, but they went ahead with the search and seizure anyways, so we’re challenging that urgently.”
He said StarSat had applied for an urgent interdict, but even if it were granted, it would face a significant uphill battle in assessing damage and reconnecting its equipment.
According to a Twitter/X post by TV critic, writer, and journalist Thinus Ferreira, StarSat has only told customers that it is “aware of the connection issue” and will provide further feedback.
Icasa instructed StarSat to shut down its South African operation on 18 September 2024 after it submitted its subscription broadcast licence application late last year.
StarSat’s licence expired on 8 July 2023, and it submitted its application in November that same year.
However, Icasa said the Electronic Communications Act stipulates that broadcasters must submit their renewal application “no earlier than twelve months and no later than six months prior to the expiry of the licence”.
“The authority does not have the legislative or regulatory mandate to consider a renewal application for a licence that has already expired,” it added.
Harmse acknowledged that StarSat submitted its application late but added that it faced several challenges leading up to it and consistently engaged with the regulator.
“We did have a deadline to meet, but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we couldn’t get the right investors in, there were shareholder agreements that still needed to be fine, and we kept communicating the issue to them,”
“We kept saying it will be late if you want all the paperwork at the same time. So, we did submit late, but we submitted everything we needed to.”
Harmse added that, according to regulations, StarSat has checked off all the boxes and should be allowed to run. However, he said Icasa doesn’t want to hear it out.
Echoes of iBurst battle
Icasa’s hard-line approach to StarSat’s non-compliance somewhat resembles its crackdown on iBurst over a decade ago.
In April 2013, Icasa seized Wireless Business Solutions’ radio communication equipment at six sites across Gauteng, bringing down large portions of the iBurst and Broadlink networks.
This left thousands of consumers and businesses without connectivity.
The regulator said at the time that the crackdown resulted from its hard-line approach to non-compliance regarding outstanding radio licence fees adopted in October 2012.
“As a result, ICASA inspectors commenced with investigations that led to the crackdown on WBS earlier this week,” it said.
WBS successfully applied for a High Court interdict against the regulator to return the equipment. The regulator returned iBurst’s network equipment, and the network was restored to its original state.
WBS was later acquired and lives on as Rain — South Africa’s upstart 4G mobile network and 5G fixed wireless operator.