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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE Government has started working on processes to licence 40 community radio stations countrywide as it moves a gear up to enhance total broadcasting coverage, an official has said.
Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana said they will start with the languages licences before moving to other categories.
He was speaking in an interview in Beitbridge yesterday on the sidelines of a community sensitisation meeting on the setting up of such radios.
It is understood that the Venda (Beitbridge), Shangani (Chiredzi), Ndau (Chipinge), Kalanga (Plumtree) and Tonga (Binga) will benefit in the first phase.
Mr Mangwana, who was accompanied by officials from the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, (BAZ) said the team had visited the border town at the invitation of Zanu-PF Beitbridge East legislator, Cde Albert Nguluvhe.
“We have started the sensitisation meetings with people in the respective benefiting communities. Beitbridge is our first port of call and we will be going to Chiredzi and other towns in due course,” said Mr Mangwana.
He, however, said Government could not set a deadline for issuance of all the 40 licences but it will be done as soon as possible.
Mr Mangwana said BAZ will conduct commissions of inquiry to check the eligibility of all those who make submissions for licences.
“This is a process we need to carry out with due diligence so that the licences are issued out fairly. If we speed up we will have a lot of complaints from the people,” said Mr Mangwana.
He said BAZ should call for applications at the very least, three times a year from a policy point of view and then the process is rolled out.
“However, if it was my way by December all the frequencies that they have will be gone.”
Mr Mangwana said Government would assist the respective communities with setting up of infrastructure, capacity building and training.
He said community radio stations were good for the people as they were development drivers.
Mr Mangwana said the establishment of CRS will be a great success if people worked as a collective to enable them to be rolled out quickly.
“As we seek to address the black spot in broadcasting, we have tasked Transmedia, which is the entity in charge of our transmitters to look at all gaps and to put in place what we need to move forward.
“It is our understanding that once all that audit and risk copying has been done by Transmedia, we should be able to fill black spots and have a total broadcasting coverage. This will be put under our 100 days projects so that we implement the recommendations quickly,” said Mr Mangwana.
He said Government was exploring ways to speed up the digitisation programme which is at 37 percent.
Mr Mangwana said very few countries in the world are at 100 percent as most of them were at 70 percent coverage.
“The challenges that are afflicting the nation in terms of foreign currency are affecting this digitisation programme. We are still around 37 percent done but what we intend to do as soon as possible is for people to enjoy what is already there. I know it will not cover the whole country but those who have transmitters should start enjoying the product that has been put into the digital transmission,” he said
The permanent secretary said his Ministry was rolling out mobile communication services through ZBC.
“We also take note of power issues in rural areas and in some areas we will use solar. They will be going around with mobile information services. Remember ZBC has the national mandate to inform the nation. The ministry does the policy but we use outlets like ZBC to go direct to the people.
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