Classroom and Easter services will come to your TV during lockdown

Minister of communications and digital technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has announced that the government will broadcast school lessons to ensure that education continues during the Covid-19 lockdown.

She was briefing the media on Wednesday about the measures her department will be implementing as part of the nationwide lockdown announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday.

She said education in its traditional form had been affected, but making use of technology would help.

"We will be working with the department of education to provide broadcast and virtual classrooms. Our children are sitting at home playing cartoons, others are finishing food, but ours is to say: 'How do we make sure that children can be in a classroom while in the comfort of their homes?'" said Ndabeni-Abrahams.

"This is why the SABC has availed a channel that will be dedicated to education, including identifying two studios where the broadcast of the virtual classrooms will be provided."

This intervention will include recorded lessons and in some cases teachers will take various subjects live.

Ndabeni-Abrahams also announced an allocation of R100m to "to enable small businesses in our sector to carry out the work that I spoke about".

Furthermore, she said, the SABC would dedicate one of its channels to broadcast Easter-related programmes.

"South Africa is a religious country. It is in this context that the SABC and DStv ... agreed that we will clear some channels to ensure that South Africans have an Easter Sunday broadcast," she said.

"This will enable those who missed the opportunity to go to church to have their church in the comfort of their lounges."

As for telecommunication mobile operators, the minister said they were playing ball and helping the government to encourage hope among citizens.