By Donald Nyarota.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe. (News of The South)-The licensing impasse of community radio stations should be resolved as it has a telling effect on community development Zimbabwe Association for Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) has said.
Speaking at an inaugural annual general meeting of Kumakomo Community Radio Station recently ZACRAS board member Thomas Sithole said government’s proposed framework for community radio stations was too narrow.
He said authorities were seeking to politicize definition of a community as an underhand tactic to deny licenses for urban based community radio stations in favor of rural based ones.
“At the moment we don’t have a single community radio station. We hear that government is working on a regulatory framework for community radio licensing.
“However we have heard pronouncements that are disturbing through BAZ that community radio stations are those in rural areas under Chiefs.
“This development is a deliberate move to thwart our space and until we engage in discussions to define a community we feel this move is wrong.”
He added, “It is indeed sad for government to say there are no communities in towns but only in rural areas. Unless and until all communities are given space we will have done ourselves a great disservice.”
His sentiments comes in the wake of comments made by Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Professor Jonathan Moyo who was quoted claiming that Zimbabweans were confused over the definition of the term community.
Professor Moyo told a parliamentary portfolio committee that for the sake of licensing radio communities are ‘rural’, ‘geographical’ and ‘working under a Chief, with the Provincial and District Administrators as part of the set up.’
These assertions by Professor Moyo should not deter communities’ call for mediums of expression claims ZACRAS national coordinator Vivienne Marara.
Marara said community radio licensing should not be prescriptive as the presence of such radio station is to push community development which cannot be prescribed.
“We should not be prescriptive when we talk about issues around community development because community radio why it is there is basically to push community development.
“So at the end of the day if we chose to be discriminatory or exclude other voices from taking part in the development discourse we are actually doing ourselves a disservice.
“Why should we as a country chose to act otherwise in a manner that tends to discriminate others from the development discourse,” she said.
She said her organization was engaging relevant authorities to bring the community radio agenda on the table.
“We are engaging relevant authorities and by relevant authorities I mean the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services.
“We are also engaging the Information and Broadcasting Services portfolio committee to bring community agenda on the table,” she said.
In terms of defining a community, Marara urged government to make exhaustive consultations across the media industry to come up with a position.
“We encourage the ministry to engage other players in the industry to also try and have a consultative process to have their views.
“The same thing that they did during IMPI to hear people’s voice is the same thing which should be done in terms of defining what a community is.
“Why should we try and reinvent the wheel where already we know what a community is because there are international standards and practices around what exactly what a community is.
“So why should we as a country act in a manner which tends to discriminates other voices from the development discourse,” said Marara.
Chairman of Kumakomo Community Radio Station, Mike Tembo said as an organization operating outside the law for more than a decade the issue of licensing remained outstanding.
He also said the rationale behind community broadcasting was to push local development agendas in a non partisan manner, hence strides to push for broader participation of residents with a view of expanding coverage to surrounding rural areas.
“Our initiative has been in operation since 2004. This can translate to more than a decade of operation, but the journey has not been an easy ride down the park.
“The issue of licensing has been outstanding and remains unresolved to date.
“We are also lining up a move to engage nearby rural communities, who will also benefit once we start broadcasting because as I am made to understand the radius of broadcast in usually 60km.
“We have always reiterated on the importance of being non partisan in all our activities, we are apolitical. We don’t have any political affiliation, we don’t touch politics, we don’t report on it,” said Tembo.
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