We are among Sadc stars, says Nankhumwa
On Tuesday night, Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa announced what was already an open secret: that the country would not switch to digital television broadcasting at once.
Contradicting pronouncements that the country is on track, radio stations have been running advertisements indicating the shutdown of analogue transmitters will start with Mzuzu and Zomba on Wednesday, the day a global deadline for total migration was supposed to dawn.
Despite the staggering approach putting Blantyre and Lilongwe on hold until September, Nankhumwa insisted Malawi is on course for digital migration.
“We are not failures. Actually, we are number three in the Sadc region and some countries have failed to achieve the deadline,” he said.
The minister refused to name the worst performing countries citing political decorum, but he said the country is trailing Tanzania and Namibia “having overtaken Mauritius.”
Malawi initiated an on-off transition launch of digital migration on December 31 2013 in line with Sadc requirements.
However, the State-run system was paused shortly afterwards in a scene former Information minister Moses Kunkuyu attributed to lack of content to sustain the costly digital technology.
According to Malawi Digital Broadcasting Limited acting chief executive officer Denis Chirwa, at least 55 percent of the population—nearly 7.5 million Malawians living within 80 kilometres (km) from Zomba, Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu—were ready to migrate to digital TV on Tuesday.
