The final analogue switch-off set for 31 March 2025 will not go ahead as planned. This comes as the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria suspended the switch-off deadline and interdicted the Minister from implementing it pending a final determination on part B, which is the review of the lawfulness of the decision to set the deadline to 31 March 2025.
This follows Etv, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition last week hauling the Minister of Communications and Digital Technology to an urgent court hearing.
The applicants challenged the deadline on numerous grounds, including, that it will breach a promise made by government, the decision was taken without rational consultation and that government is nowhere near completing its process of rolling out set top boxes (STBs) to all who need and have been promised them before 31 March 2025.
The High Court, in its judgment, found, among other things, that if the applicants are not granted this interim relief but succeed on review, millions of South Africans would have been plunged into a television blackout.
