The man fighting DStv piracy in South Africa

Frikkie Jonker is the broadcasting cybersecurity anti-piracy director at Irdeto and is a key player in the ongoing DStv piracy crackdown in South Africa.

Jonker started his career in the South African National Defence Force, serving as a captain until June 1993.

After leaving the military, he joined MultiChoice as its anti-piracy manager, a position he held for six years.

In 1999, he moved to Microsoft, where he was the software company’s anti-piracy manager in the African region.

He returned to MultiChoice in 2003 as the company’s regional Africa anti-piracy manager, where he stayed for six years.

Between 2011 and 2017, he worked as MultiChoice’s anti-piracy general manager and was promoted to director of broadcasting piracy and cybersecurity.

Although this role falls under the MultiChoice-owned Irdeto, most of his work concerns piracy linked to MultiChoice products.

He holds numerous security qualifications, including a Master’s degree in intelligence and security from the University of Leicester.

He also has a certificate in copyright and the business of creative industries from CISAC University and attended the International IP Crime Investigators College at Interpol.

Jonker is known for his strategic approach to combating digital content piracy, focusing on protecting intellectual property and supporting Africa’s creative industry.

He plays a critical role in highlighting piracy’s economic and cultural impacts, advocating for rights protection, and promoting a creative economy.

He explained that Africa is a global dumping ground for inferior products. This is practised not only in legitimate trade but also in the criminal underworld.

“Outdated regulations, inefficient law enforcement, bribery and corruption all play a role in this,” Jonker said.

“Despite this, African authorities are doing a heroic job fighting cybercrime and content piracy. There have been huge successes in prosecuting content piracy operations.”

He explained that when it comes to content piracy, Africa has low barriers to entry and a limitless demand for cheap content.

Fighting content piracy in South Africa and the rest of Africa

Jonker said changing people’s attitude to the crime of content piracy has to be an industry-wide campaign.

“The creative industry must unite and address the issue collectively, as they have done through pan-African initiatives like Partners Against Piracy,” he said.

Government attitudes are equally important. If content piracy is not taken seriously, it harms the country’s creative and entertainment sectors.

“When leading content businesses consider entering the African market, they need the reassurance that their content rights will be protected,” Jonker said.

He explained that if a country is unable to provide such guarantees, the investments do not materialise.

The good news is that technological advances like AI, automation, watermarking, and digital tracing capabilities are making enforcement easier.

“It is now possible to track down and prosecute consumers of pirated content rapidly, accurately and at scale,” he said.

Jonker said prosecuting content piracy is more than a harsh clampdown that spoils everyone’s fun. It has numerous benefits.

It protects the livelihoods of creators, producers and rightsholders, ensuring that there can be more content in the future.

He added that pay-TV has extremely tight margins. Given these margins, any content theft threatens the industry’s viability.

Another benefit of stopping piracy is preserving the support ecosystem that maintains trust in content platforms and their ongoing viability.

Jonker made headlines in 2024 for the successful crackdown on numerous online content piracy networks in South Africa.

He is a key player in an ongoing nationwide crackdown on piracy, which is spearheaded by local authorities in collaboration with the MultiChoice Anti-Piracy Department.

MultiChoice has been actively cooperating with law enforcement to protect its DStv content from piracy.

As part of these efforts, several arrests have been made in recent months, including those targeting key distributors of illegal streaming services.

Jonked said the arrests are a significant step in their ongoing battle against digital piracy in South Africa.

“We are actively tracking additional targets. The message is clear – those participating in this illegal network will be brought to justice,” said Jonker.