Zimbabwe unlikely to meet digitalisation deadline

The government risks failing to meet the International Telecommunications Union June 17 digitization deadline as evidence emerges that Zimbabwe was still to flight a multi-million dollar tender for the top boxes that will allow televisions to read the digital signal.

The State-broadcaster ZBC has for the last two years been battling to raise funding for the digitization equipment without much success.

However, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services deputy minister Monica Mutsvangwa last week said the government was going to meet the deadline.

It was, however, not clear where and who would supply the multi-million dollar tender for the television top boxes that will allow televisions to decode the digital signal.

Mutsvangwa in an interview on Tuesday confirmed that the tender was not yet open. "They have not yet advertised the tender she hopes they might do it next week," she said.

According to tender experts who declined to be named, the tendering process usually takes up to three months.