New communications minister Ayanda Dlodlo led a door-to-door set-top box (STB) registration campaign at the border village of Ramatlabama in the North West at the weekend.
Dlodlo was sworn in to the national executive on Friday following president Jacob Zuma's dramatic Cabinet reshuffle last week.
The Department of Communications, which has been charged with driving the country's digital migration process, says the awareness campaigns are to educate the locals about the importance of migrating from analogue to digital TV.
Speaking about the digital migration awareness campaign, Dlodlo said it was a real eye-opener. "It is almost like I am in a learning mission here...it was the first time to see the subsidised government STB and how it works, that gives our people an opportunity to enjoy more programmes from various television channels and more radio stations."
The minister added that rolling out STBs is a step in the right direction. "I think minister Faith Muthambi has done a tremendous job with regard to this programme."
Former communications minister Muthambi, who joined Dlodlo on the public awareness campaign, said she was there to ensure a smooth transition with regards to the digital migration programme.
"We are here to officially hand over the DTT [digital terrestrial television] programme to minister Dlodlo, and with her energy, she is a seasoned cadre who is service delivery oriented. We are quite sure that what we've started is going to be completed.
"The distribution of free STBs to the poor TV-owning households is one of the achievements of our pro-poor government," said Muthambi.
After missing the 2015 digital migration deadline, government is in a rush to ensure border-lying South African households migrate. A decision by the Constitutional Court will determine the technical specifications of government-subsidised STBs.
Government plans to subsidise five million indigent TV-owning households across the country with free STBs.
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