SABC comes to Karoo
A number of communities in the Karoo will – for the first time – have access to the full range of programming on the SABC’s television services, as well as to radio coverage.
As part of Government’s Imbizo Focus Week 2008, the Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri visited Prince Albert and ‘switched on’ a number of low-power transmitters.
The municipal areas benefiting from the new transmitters include Prince Albert, Leeu-Gamka, Klaarstroom, Nelspoort and Merweville.
This first-time delivery of extended radio and television services includes, in particular, SABC 1, 2 and 3, and RSG (Radio Sonder Grense), and is as a result of requests from these communities to the Department of Communications (DoC) during a previous Imbizo, held in October 2006.
Since then, the DoC has been working in partnership with the SABC and the signal provider Sentech to extend coverage to these communities.
An application by the SABC to the Independent Communication Authority of SA (ICASA) to extend its services to the Central Karoo towns of Prince Albert, Nelspoort, Merweville, Leeu-Gamka and Klaarstroom was approved by the regulatory body in December 2007.
Sentech has since established the new transmitter sites, which have enabled the official switch-on of these extended services.
Commenting on the SABC’s mandate, the SABC’s Head of Audience Services, Mr Anton Heunis, says that it is the right of every South African to enjoy programming – on both radio and television – that educates, informs and entertains.
“As the national broadcaster, we have an obligation to ensure that citizens across the country are able to access our services. Working with the Department of Communications and Sentech to bring news, education and entertainment programming to this central Karoo area and its communities has been a most rewarding project for us,” Heunis stated.
“We wish to take this opportunity to thank the TV licence-paying citizens of South Africa, whose willingness to make this annual payment has provided real value for these areas that previously had very limited access to broadcasting services,” Heunis stated.
The SABC said that it will continue with the roll-out of similar transmitters to ± 300 sites over a three-year period.
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