Court suspends analogue switch-off date, ruling calls set date "irrational"

Source: © 123rf 123rf South Africans will not be denied their constitutional right to access to news and information after the Gauteng High Court suspended the analogue TV switch-off date of 31 March 2025

The ruling, made on Thursday, 27 March, only days before the switch-off date, states, "The operation of the final analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2025, as announced by the minister of communications and digital technologies on 5 December 2024, is suspended.

"The minister of communications and digital technologies is interdicted from taking steps to implement the switch-off of analogue signals and ending dual illumination."

The court’s judgment found that the decision to set the ASO date was taken by the wrong entity (i.e., the Cabinet and not the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies), which the court found unlawful.

In addition, Minister Solly Malatsi was found to have failed in his constitutional obligation to consult with all relevant stakeholders. Both Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS) had been excluded from the consultation process.

Together with e.tv, they had approached the country to delay the switch-off.

The three argued that the switch-off would have left millions of South Africans with no access to news and information as community broadcasters, etv, and the SABC would have become inaccessible to them.

This, said the group, denied the public its constitutional and human right to news and information.

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Court judgement

The court stated: "Upon enquiry by the court, Counsel for the Minister conceded that the above consultation requirements were not complied with by the Minister. The country and the stakeholders (including the applicants) were presented with a fait accompli.

"The Minister’s stance is bad in law in that … the e.tv judgment … requires consultation regarding the actual date of the ASO. This may partly explain why a cost order was awarded against the Minister."

ASO date irrational

The court found that the setting of the ASO date was irrational.

The country found that “the Minister chooses to turn a blind eye to the following fact which exposes the State’s inactivity during the period 2023 to 2024 (contained in his answering affidavit)”.

It stated that “the Minister chooses to turn a blind eye to the following fact which exposes the State’s inactivity during the period 2023-2024.

During this time only "45,450 STBs were installed between August 2023 to October 2024; between August and December 2024, the department only installed 15,740 STBs (about 300 per month), so the State knew that in August 2023 well over 400 000 households required STBs … before 31 December 2024, it [had] installed only 61 000 STBs in a period of 18 months".

Access to information victory

On its site the SOS Support Public Broadcasting called the decision a “victory for access to information and freedom of expression.”

‘It is not a matter for speculation that the public will suffer severe consequences, and even the Minister admits in his answering affidavit that if the analogue transmitters cease operating, the “whole republic” will suffer prejudice.’

“We therefore welcome, unequivocally, and applaud the court’s unambiguous commitment to safeguarding and upholding fundamental rights,” said the SOS statement.

It added that the harm is not just a temporary inconvenience.

“Each day without access to news, public service announcements and educational programming results in irreversible loss of knowledge, awareness and democratic participation.

“Today we celebrate a victory not only of a rights-focused judgment, but also celebrate how the court was able to highlight the importance of the ASO decision. Had it been allowed to go ahead, the rights of millions of people would have been grossly violated.”

Government has also been ordered to pay the costs of eMedia and the other broadcasters.