Here’s how much government collected towards digital migration in the last five years

The South African government continues to allocate millions of dollars annually towards the digital migration project aimed at transitioning from analogue to digital broadcasting. Despite being initiated in 2008, the project has seen numerous missed deadlines, with the latest postponement occurring in March 2025. Despite collecting millions annually, over half a billion dollars in digital migration inventory was written off during the most recent financial year.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) collected R1.2 billion from 2021-22 to 2025-26 for digital migration purposes. In 2021-22, entities under DCDT collected R249 million, increasing to R281 million in the latest financial year. The collected funds are directed towards the Universal Services and Access Fund (USAASA), which has two strategic objectives: facilitating the analogue-to-digital TV transition and expanding high-speed broadband internet access to underserved areas.

USAASA's expenditure stood at R1.6 billion, with rollover funds peaking at R2.8 billion between 2021-22 and 2023-24 and subsequently declining. Any expenditure surpassing the annual DCDT drawdown was funded from retained or rollover approved funds, not an overspend. The department clarified that the R567 million in written-off inventory from previous years was part of the actual expenditure for the last financial year.

Unutilised broadband expenditure of R270 million, earmarked for another state-owned communications company, Broadband Infraco, was also reported. Delays in the digital migration set-top box installation and broadband project implementation were cited as factors affecting utilisation. Public figures, including the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), have called for government accountability, urging Parliament to enforce consequences for mismanagement and wasteful expenditure in the digital migration project.