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by some institutionswhose registration as non-governmental organisations is under scrutiny.
The radios, known as Life-players, are a product of a United Kingdom-based company called Lifeline Energy and whose punch line is Trading for a Cause.
Political experts said their cause in Zimbabwe was to ensure an illegal regime change.
Media, Information and Publicity secretary Mr George Charamba said Government was keen to know how the radios ended up in Zimbabwe.
“There are fundamental questions that come into play. How were they (radios) imported? Who is holding the dealer’s licence?
“Who shipped the radios into Zimbabwe? How did they make it through our borders and which border points were used?
“Who was the clearing agent and what was the purpose?”
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Mr Charamba said preliminary indications were that the radios were brought through an embassy accredited to Zimbabwe.
“We are investigating to see whether this was consistent with the provisions of the Vienna Convention. We are also keen to understand the interests of that embassy by bringing that consignment using its diplomatic status.
“Foreign Affairs is looking at the complicity of this embassy and soon people will be summoned. We are also investigating the institutions which received those radios for distribution countrywide. We are also trying to establish its registration status. We are also investigating whether it has such mandate within its terms of reference to engage in such work,” he said.
Mr Charamba said systems of Government and other agencies were activated to investigate the capability of this radio unit.
He said there were laws and conditions that govern the sale of radios and such laws require that dealers should ensure that people buying the radios had listener’s licences.
Under the Broadcasting Act, sound urban licence is US$20, rural urban licence is US$10 and business premises listener’s licence is US$50.
The radios in question, according to Kristine Pearson, who is Lifeline’s Energy chief executive, had an audio storage capacity of 64 gigabytes and that is literally a year’s worth of programming.
The wind-up and solar-powered radio is a full spectrum receiver that could receive FM and AM signals.
It also has a provision for short wave and of particular note is that it has a transmitter that could transmit recorded audio material to pirate radio stations like Voice of America.
Ms Pearson said: “There are several ways you can add content. You can provide us with content, which is what some of our partner organisations are doing; educational content.
“It can be loaded at the factory. Alternatively, there is a slot in the front that takes a micro SD card that you can load content and that comes across 3G networks from a mobile phone,” she said.
The company’s ambassador, Tom Hanks, who is also a film actor, said: “Had it (the radio) existed during the Cold War, it could have brought down the Soviet Union to its knees.
“Battery-less radio! I saw immediately the impact such a radio could have on impoverished peoples in Africa and the world.”
In this regard, Mr Charamba said, Government was not against the availability of radios but a specific gadget that was designed to subvert electoral processes as the country drifts towards elections.
“There was a sinister intention to suggest to the world that the Government of Zimbabwe is so absurd as stopping distribution of radios.
“There are many radios dealers in this country and who go about their business unimpeded. Radio penetration in this country is the highest on the continent and that has been achieved without this monastery gadgetry.
“It is not about radios but a specific gadget that has been produced against the tenets of the Global Political Agreement and subverting the electoral processes apart from undermining our laws,” said Mr Charamba.
He said most of the institutions that pretended to be NGOs do not have the desire to help people in Zimbabwe.
“It is very interesting that institutions that pretend to be NGOs possibly follow the cynical interpretation of the Bible that the rural poor shall not live on bread alone but on sweet sounds from pirate radio stations against a hungry stomach.
“Is that humanitarian intervention? Would political parties that do not hesitate to abuse death not hesitate to abuse ears of the hungry poor for political gains? This is not a lifeline but a death line. Pretending to reduce absurdity that is a clear attack on this country is unfair,” said Mr Charamba.
He said such kind of gadgetry was used against the Union of Soviet and Socialist Republic, and more recently against Iraq, Libya and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
It is understood that Zanu-PF was considering taking the radios around Sadc capitals to dramatise the subversion of not only the GPA but the electoral laws as well.
“Emissaries may be sent soon to those capitals,” said a Zanu-PF source.
He said Government had noted that there were some political parties that have been associated with the movement of these radios even at ministerial level.
As such, Mr Charamba said, Government was eager to understand whether these parties were signatories to the GPA.
He said if they were GPA signatories, they were committing a serious offence since the GPA had a specific provision relating to pirate radio stations and their availability in the country.
Mr Charamba said that provision was one of the long outstanding issues in the GPA.
The Herald is reliably informed that the ZBC, Portraz and Zimra were mulling legal action with a view to assessing the prejudice caused to them through massive illegal importation of those radios.
Online Reporter