Fireworks in court as e.tv is accused of ulterior motives

Fireworks erupted at the high court in Pretoria on Wednesday as the standoff between e.tv and communications minister Solly Malatsi over analogue television switch-off at the end of this month continues.

The legal team representing Malatsi first refused to present to the court in their allotted timeslot on Tuesday, arguing that they needed more time to prepare their arguments. This was disputed by Malatsi’s opponents in the case – e.tv, Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition – and questioned by the judge, who highlighted the urgency of the matter given that the court has less than 10 days to come to a decision.

Malatsi’s legal team, led by Kennedy Tsatsawane, SC, was granted an extension until 10am on Wednesday to present its case. A second bone of contention arose after the minister’s team presented a new affidavit on Tuesday evening, which immediately came under fire from e.tv’s legal counsel, Gilbert Marcus, SC, and Media Monitoring Africa’s legal counsel, Nick Ferreira, SC. Ferreira claimed that some of the most pertinent information provided in the affidavit was untrue.

“This late affidavit is inherently improbable. The final paragraph of the affidavit which tells this court that Sentech will be able to complete the installation of government-sponsored set-top boxes by the end of 2025, does not stand up to scrutiny,” Ferreira told the court on Wednesday.

Ferreira explained that Sentech claims it will install 383 049 set-top boxes in the less than nine months left of the year, meaning 42 561 installations must occur monthly for that target to be reached. Sentech’s historical data shows that it does not have such capacity.

Quoting figures from Sentech’s reports to parliament, Ferreira said the company installed 8 646 boxes in December 2024, 10 293 STBs were installed this January and 8 486 were installed in the first half of last month. Sentech would have to quintuple its capacity to meet the target.

No material difference

“If it is possible for the state to ramp up its installation capacity by 400% to achieve 42 000 [installations] a month overnight, then why are they only doing it now? Why are they only doing it one week before analogue switch-off is going to happen? Why didn’t they do it a year or two ago to ensure they kept their promise of leaving nobody behind?” asked Ferreira.

He argued that the changes Malatsi’s legal team made in the affidavit filed on Tuesday made no material difference to the facts presented by the applicants. Both Marcus and Ferreira also filed a motion with the court to add a cost order to their application since delays by Malatsi’s team forced the hearing to go over the single day it was initially scheduled for.

Read: Warning of TV blackout for millions in South Africa

In Tsatsawane’s presentation to the court for Malatsi, he began by casting doubt to the purity of e.tv’s intentions for taking the minister to court. “E.tv is not necessarily litigating in this case to protect the interests of the poorest of the poor, it is litigating to protect its own commercial interests.”

Tsatsawane accused e.tv of flip-flopping, at first supporting an expedited analogue switch-off in a high court case between Telkom and communications regulator Icasa in 2021 and then switching its stance in a constitutional court case against former communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni in 2022.

The court has heard representations from e.tv, Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition as well as Malatsi. Judgment is expected to be handed down before 31 March, although it could come later than that.  – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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Court battle over analogue TV switch-off begins