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Zvamaida Murwira, Senior Reporter
THE second phase of the Zim Digital programme, about to be launched by Government, will ensure full national coverage of both radio and television broadcasting services consistent with what is envisaged by the International Telecommunication Union, Senators heard yesterday.
Responding to questions in the Senate, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere, said the Government intended to achieve full coverage, starting with border areas, within the next two years.
Senators had raised concern over limited coverage of broadcasting services in some remote areas, saying communities such as those in Bulilima and other areas that are close to borders were listening to neighbouring countries’ radio stations.
In his response, Dr Muswere said all the challenges related to limited access will come to an end once the second phase of the Zim digital programme was completed.
“As I have indicated that in terms of radio, we are at 62 percent in terms of national coverage.
“The launch of the second phase of the Zim Digital project will ensure that we have 100 percent coverage in terms of the geography of our country. It involves the procurement of transmitters across the country, the powering of those transmitters and it also involves the connectivity in terms of ICT because we have reached that point of convergence,” said Dr Muswere.
“In order to speed up the process, we have already done the Digital Infrastructure Master Plan working together with the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, Postal and Courier Services and we have identified that in the majority of cases we will do infrastructure sharing between our Ministry and that of ICT so this, we believe, will accelerate the deployment of the second phase of the Zim Digital project.”
He said the number and coverage of community radio stations would improve significantly once the country attained full digitalisation.
“Meanwhile, we have the community radio stations, but they are mainly focused on a small geography in terms of coverage, but as soon as the second phase of the Zim Digital project kicks in, we are very sure we will be in a position to cover the entire country.
“So the current plan, informed by the master plan, is that we seek to finalise the second phase within a space of two years because we are already behind in terms of the ITU deadline,” Dr Muswere said.
He said ITU had wanted full digitalisation by 2015, but Zimbabwe was one of those countries that failed to meet the deadline.
“In 2006, the International Telecommunications Union made a decision to migrate from analogue to digital and in the process they put of a cut off date which was 2015 so the first phase of the Zim Digital project started in earnest and it has covered a significant population in the country to an extent that now in terms of radio we now cover 62 percent.
“Within a month we are presenting the second phase to Cabinet which is the Zim Digital Two, which will take care of all border areas, which include Bulilima. But in order to support the development of radio and television under the leadership of President of ED Mnangagwa, a licencing framework was then revised to take into consideration the establishment of community radio stations,” Dr Muswere said.
“And the Zim Digital Two project, it is going to concentrate first and foremost in the border areas as we leave no one and no place behind.”
He said there was a review of the Zim Digital project and the Government communications strategy and at the same time, the enhanced Government communication plan which takes into consideration the print, and broadcasting platforms.
“What is taking place currently is that an inclusive committee has been put in place to ensure that each and every community and language in terms of the Constitution contributes towards education, information dissemination and entertainment because Vision 2030 is about collective responsibility.
“The collective responsibility means to educate, entertain and educate the nation.
“A number of programmes have started including at Classic 263 which are focusing mainly on the southern region in terms of the provinces.
“So a number of programmes have been put in place including drama and educational programmes as an inclusive strategy as we seek to ensure that an informed nation is beneficial in terms of nation building. So I can assure you that almost all the languages have been included,” Dr Muswere said.
“In order to enhance support in terms of infrastructure development and deal with specific issues in certain regions, we have legislated communication information centres and we have also supported community radio stations, so they speak specifically to a particular geography in terms of supporting our national languages.”
Online Reporter