Decrypting Faith’s TV saga

The years-long digital TV signal saga that has denied the country better broadband may have a Gupta link

This is about government policy, so you’re going to have to bear with me. Last week, former communications minister Faith Muthambi won her constitutional court case against the policies of her predecessor, Yunus Carrim, and her own party.

You may foolishly believe this legal step might lead to a conclusion of the epic, 10-year saga. But this is the ANC government and we are well and truly into the state capture years.

Last Thursday’s court victory for Muthambi — now minister of public service & administration — may prove to be a moot point. Her successor, Ayanda Dlodlo, has already hinted that she will do yet another U-turn in what is a bizarre series of flip-flops around the provision of set-top boxes for the new digital terrestrial television (DTT) signal.

Let’s recap. It is, after all, another inexplicable episode in the ongoing soap opera of the President Jacob Zuma years, so the illogical twists and irrational turns are hard to follow.

Muthambi, after destroying the SABC by backing Hlaudi Motsoeneng and other incompetent acts, broke with ANC policy over whether the decoders should be encrypted. The ANC and free-to-air broadcaster e.tv believed they should be; Multichoice and, bizarrely, the SABC under mad hatter Motsoeneng said they shouldn’t.

A series of court cases followed, which e.tv won until last week’s constitutional court reversal.

Muthambi’s insistence on the opposite of her party was an enigma seemingly explained by her thorough incompetence — until the #Guptaleaks e-mails emerged last month.

The leaks revealed that Muthambi e-mailed Rajesh “Tony” Gupta directly about government policy changes affecting her department of miscommunications before Zuma had officially approved them.

On July 29 2014 she also e-mailed Ashu Chawla, CEO of Gupta-owned Sahara Computers, a memo from telecommunications & postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele, which Chawla forwarded to Tony Gupta.

Cwele, with whom Muthambi was locked in an internecine battle for control of the telecoms sector, expressed concerns about changes to the DTT migration policy.

Industry commentators have been wondering for years whether the encryption battle has been waged to suit some hidden interest, as the contract to provide 5m set-top boxes for the households deemed too poor to buy the pricey decoders will be worth a pretty penny.

Nothing from the #Guptaleaks e-mails has been proven — except the extent to which the Guptas have been running the country. But don’t be surprised if Muthambi has been going to bat for a Gupta-related firm that would make, or import, such decoders. It’s not inconceivable that years of better wireless broadband and SA defaulting on a June 2015 agreement to switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasts have a corrupt Gupta link.

Shapshak is editor-in-chief and publisher of

Muthambi’s insistence on the opposite of her party was an enigma seemingly explained by her thorough

Stuff magazine (stuff.co.za)

incompetence