Digital Migration Broadcasting to Empower Women

Addressing The New Age Business briefing on Monday, Minister of Communications Dina Pule told delegates that the digital migration project will provide ample opportunities for women.

“In the department we are talking about migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting, which in itself puts women into a position of advantage,” Pule said.

Opportunities for women

Minister Pule said the process of digital migration from analogue to digital brings three fundamental direct opportunities for women in the private and public sectors- content, manufacturing decoders and new media owners.

“One is that when we move from analogue to digital broadcasting it means that we are going to have more channels- it means that we are going to need more content and we want women to place themselves in positions where they can begin to train young women to be able to produce content for those (new) channels.

The minister said her department also wants women to lead in one of the new channel, she added that there must also be a dedicated channel for women and young women in particular, an announcement applauded by the Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulama Xingwana at the event.

“We must have a channel for young women, a channel for health”.

“Two, it means that we are going to produce or manufacture decoders, which we call in our language ‘set-top boxes’- we don’t want to see men there manufacturing- we want women to participate in that space, there will be a lot of money because once we move to digital broadcasting, on a daily basis we will need a decoder,” Pule said.

Minister said she hopes women have been following on what the department of Communications is doing in the digital migration space.

Pule added (as a third opportunity) that government wanted women to be able to access spectrum, only then can women begin to say we want to open our own TV channels and their own radio stations ( either at local or regional level).
She encouraged women to explore opportunities in commercial community Television.

ICTs can empower women in rural and remote areas

Minister of Communications used the business briefing to appeal to women leaders in State Owned Enterprises to prioritise on empowerment of women in rural areas.

Minister Pule said providing skills development to young women was the best place to start women empowerment, and said it was everybody’s task to ensure that young women understand that there are careers in the ICT environment.

She said gone are those days where young people, especially girls, would end up being web masters, young women have to go into broadcast engineers, IT engineers, and financial services to grow and develop in these areas.

“The ICT environment offers no barriers to entry for women but the industry does too little to encourage them to take up a career in the sector,”  Adrian Schofield, Applied Research Unit Manager, Joburg Centre for Software Engineering at Wits University told The New Age on Monday.

The ICT industry together with government has to work harder to create an enabling environment to the growth and development of women.

 “The education system is also deficient in providing young people with the knowledge and skills that would encourage them to pursue the ICT sector as a career,” Schofield said.

Schofield, who is also the president of Computer Society South Africa and Chairman of the African Federation of ICT Associations, believes that an overall percentage of women intake (careers) in the ICT sector was probably 20% or less.

The ICT industry is not doing enough to empower women, according to Schofield "it is a serious cultural challenge to be overcome".

Although State-owned enterprises like SA Broadcasting Corporation, Sentech, and the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA plays a key role in facilitating the delivery of digital broadcasting to the country, women are expected to play a leading role.

“There are many role models of women around the world and in South Africa achieving the highest positions in the industry but this does not seems to inspire local interest”, Schofield said.

Minister Pule, who heads one of the most critical departments in the country, addressed The New Age Business Briefing on Empowering Women in Business together with Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulama Xingwana, Business Women's Association President (BWA) Kunyalala Maphisa, Telkom CEO Nombulelo Moholi, CEO of National Empowerment Fund Philisiwe Buthelezi, and Petro SA CEO Nosizwe Nokwe.

To what extent are women prepared to lead in what deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe called “the second African Telecoms Revolution”?

To explore opportunities in science and technology with special focus on SKA project, join The New Age on 31st of August for an interactive session with Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor.  

 - phutim@thenewage.co.za

 - http://www.thenewage.co.za/59602-9-53-Digital_migration_broadcasting_to_empower_women