Digital switch management team named
Speaking in the debate on her departmental budget in an extended committee of the National Assembly, the minister said that in addition to the chairperson already announced, Lara Kantor, the members of the ‘digital dzonga’ will be Marcel Golding, Calvo Mawela, Thabo Mofokeng, Dingane Dube, Richard Poulton, Karen Willenberg, Mvuso Mbebe, Lorraine Braithwaite-Kabosha, Bresler Cilliers, and Robert Sobey.
The word ‘Dzonga’ actually means ‘South’ as in ‘Afrika Dzonga’, the name of this country in Xitsonga. The ‘digital dzonga’ will bring South Africa across the digital divide.
The names she listed were welcomed by the main opposition speaker, Dene Smuts of the Democratic Alliance. They were good names, she said.
"Broadcast digital migration (BDM) is likely to change our ICT landscape dramatically," the minister said. "New opportunities will be created at both lower and higher ends of skills and businesses. The public awareness has commenced and will be intensified in the coming months.
"Working with the department of trade and industry, we are well advanced with the development of the strategy to build a first-class set-top box manufacturing sector which will grow into an electronics manufacturing sector."
She thanked industry players for agreeing to be part of developing this South African excellence in an inclusive and win-win manner that would see many newcomers enter this and related sectors.
It would ensure that the set-top boxes, which would only be required when the analogue signal was switched off in 2011, would be manufactured in South Africa, contributing to job creation.
A set-top box control system would be installed to protect South African design and manufacturing capability. The control system would enable communication between the broadcasters and the public, and provide for e-government services which could become interactive in the future.
And to reassure customers for the box, she assured them that the set-top box control system would not be used to switch them off.
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