A last-minute ruling by South Africa’s High Court postponed the nation’s planned analogue switch off of its TV signals, due on March 31st. The Court ruled in favour of broadcaster e.tv in its bid to stop communications minister Solly Malatsi from switching off analogue television broadcasts.

E-tv, a free-to-air broadcaster, filed suit against the country’s Communications Minister, Solly Malatsi in January after the minister announced in December that all analogue broadcasts would be switched off at the end of March.

In its application, the broadcaster accused Malatsi of repeating a mistake made by his predecessor, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, by not consulting industry stakeholders before deciding on a date for analogue switch-off.

“The operation of the analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2025, as announced by the minister of communications & digital technologies of 5 December 2024, is suspended. The minister is interdicted from taking any steps to implement the switch-off of analogue signals and ending dual illumination,” said Judge Selby Baqwa in the ruling, which was handed down on March 27th.

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Tags: aso, dso, south africa