DA calls on Muthambi to clarify STB order
The Democratic Alliance has uncovered a press release from Chinese telecommunications giant Shenzhen Skyworth Digital stating that it has, through “its factory in Johannesburg – co-owned by local company BUA Africa – successfully completed its first shipment, delivering a total of 70 000 set-top boxes (STBs) across South Africa”.
BUA Africa is not one of the 26 South African companies awarded a share of the R4,3 billion STB manufacturing and distribution tender managed by the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) in April 2015.
While BUA Africa did attend the 2 December 2015 mandatory briefing for companies interested in tendering, the company’s name is absent from the panel of winning company names that was briefly posted on USAASA’s website in April.
In the absence of any official release from USAASA or the Department of Communications on the placement of orders for STBs, I call on Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi, who took charge of the Broadcast Digital Migration programme of which the STB tender is part, to urgently state if orders have been placed and, if so, with who.