BULAWAYO-BASED community radio, Radio Dialogue was yesterday convicted of possession of radio sets without listeners’ licences.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
This was after the organisation’s production manager Zenzele Ndebele admitted that it possessed the receivers that were donated to the organisation.
Ndebele appeared on behalf of Radio Dialogue before Bulawayo magistrate Crispen Mberewere who convicted him for possessing the receivers without valid ZBC listeners’ licences in contravention of Section 38 of the Broadcasting Services Act and fined the organisation $100.
In mitigation Radio Dialogue lawyer Kucaca Phulu submitted that Ndebele, as manager of the organisation, admitted possessing the radios, but argued that the matter was not fit to be brought to court. He said the organisation could just have been ticketed as is usually done when listeners defaulted on licence payments.
“Accused is a registered trust whose business is to run a community radio station. They ordinarily possess the broadcasting equipment and to note as a matter of course, they kept radio sets of the nature set in the court records,” Phulu said.
He said when police found the receivers at the premises, the sets were in two cardboard boxes which were sealed and unused.
