The deployment of South Africa’s long overdue digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration programme would pave the way for the revival of the local electronic manufacturing industry; however, industry participants believe the budget for the subsidised set-top boxes (STBs) should be diverted to South African manufacturers.

Electronics manufacturer Altech UEC on Friday backed the National Association of Manufacturers of Electronic Components’ (Namec’s) call for more involvement by local electronic manufacturers in the digital migration programme.

This comes as the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (Usaasa) mulled the 17 bids received for the R4.3-billion contract to manufacture and supply the government-subsidised STBs.

Government planned to subsidise up to 66% of the price of a DTT STB and up to 77% of the price of direct-to-home STBs for five-million of the country’s poorest households.

Usaasa was scheduled to announce the winning bidder in April.

“The finalisation of the digital migration process to support broadband roll-out is the perfect opportunity to galvanise the local manufacturing industry, which, in turn, has the potential to propel the economy to higher levels of growth, open [up] new opportunities for new industries and modernise the delivery of social and economic services,” Namec secretary general Adil Nchabeleng said.

Altech UEC parent company Altech Multimedia MD Danie du Toit said the support and collaboration of larger manufacturers and government would propel emerging manufacturers into a position to exploit the opportunities presented by the digital migration and “play their rightful role” in the project.

“The electronic manufacturing business is highly capital intensive and we will continue to work with emerging manufacturers to assist in skills transfer, assist with capacity requirements and provide kits for assembly to support them to develop and grow their capabilities and take part in the digital migration value chain,” he said.

“This support is imperative if we are to make South Africa’s digital migration a reality and grow the local manufacturing industry,” Nchabeleng concluded.