Ntshavheni said September 30 is the closing date for applications and registrations for government-subsidised STBs for qualifying indigent households.
“No applications will be considered after this date,” she said.
Ntshavheni said three months is sufficient for last registrations, given the decline in STB applications and registrations in recent months and compared to the end of October, end of March and end of June registrations.
The number of registered households between April and June this year was 49,385, while between November last year and March it was 260,268.
In the government gazette notice to be published on Friday for the STB registrations deadline, Ntshavheni will also announce the new date for analogue switch-off. The migration process has been delayed by, among others, litigation from the broadcasting industry.
Last Tuesday, the Constitutional Court declared that the announcement of the end of March this year as the final switch-off date of the analogue signal is unconstitutional and invalid, and set it aside.
The court also declared that the decision of the minister to impose a deadline of October 31 2021 to register for STBs was unconstitutional, is invalid and is set aside. The court made these orders as it upheld an appeal by broadcaster e.tv and two non-profit organisations, the Media Monitoring Africa and SOS Support Public Broadcasting, against the order of the high court in Pretoria in favour of the minister.
On October 12, e.tv launched an urgent application in the high court on the basis that the analogue switch-off would permanently prevent millions of people, who had not migrated to digital television transmission and who were not in possession of STBs, from receiving free to air television transmission on their analogue television sets.
— Additional reporting by Ernest Mabuza
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