Icasa “over-reached” in confiscating StarSat kit
October 7, 2024
The October 2nd raid by South Africa communications regulator Icasa on satellite broadcaster StarSat was deliberately damaging said StarSat officials. Senior technical staff were at the broadcaster’s Johannesburg head office and tried to tell Icasa and the police during the raid which equipment operated their systems.
But, says StarSat, this advice was ignored and cables were disconnected without any thought as to the consequences. It meant, says Starsat, that satellite signals to 23 other African countries and owned by StarTimes Media were disrupted.
StarSat argued that this deliberate confiscation of equipment and belonging to StarTimes allegedly did not fall under Icasa’s warrant’s purview, because while parent On Digital Media’s (ODM’s) licence has indeed expired (the reason for the raid), StarTimes’ wider licence was valid.
Pule Mabe, head of public affairs and strategy at StarSat, claimed Icasa “may have contravened” the Icasa Act in the way it conducted the enforcement action. It also allegedly approached the Court ex parte, “meaning that in approaching the magistrate, we should have been present to also state our case”, Mabe said.
He argued that as part of the process of confiscating StarSat’s equipment, Icasa had a duty to justify that each piece of equipment taken was “material to an investigation Icasa is undertaking”, but that no such justification was forthcoming. “Based on the excitement and the taking of equipment that does not fall under the arena of ODM … we are not saying there is an agenda but Icasa’s actions suggest there is an agenda,” said Mabe.
Mabe said there were many occasions StarSat tried to engage with Icasa, but the regulator was slow to respond to the company’s letters and meeting requests. He also admonished the “aggressive” behaviour of Icasa representatives at StarSat’s premises.
According to Jan Harmse, marketing manager at StarSat, the equipment taken has disrupted services for call centre, internet, digital terrestrial television, direct-to-the-home satellite and streaming services across 23 African countries “who have done nothing wrong”.
As a result, viewers in the affected territories may have access to some channels and not others, while the quality on some channels may be poorer than they are used to. “Some of our best channels like Discovery Channel and National Geographic are not available at all because they are beamed to South Africa first before they are sent to the rest of Africa,” said Harmse.
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