BULAWAYO-BASED aspiring community radio station, Youth Broadcasting (Y-FM) has expressed concern over the latest Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (Baz)’s call for community radio applications, which it says refers to section 10 of Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) [Chapter 12:06] which it has petitioned against.
The radio station said Baz’s new call had excluded Bulawayo.
The latest Baz call for applications reads: “It is hereby notified that in terms of section 10 of the BSA [Chapter 12:06], Baz is inviting applications for licences to provide free-to-air community radio broadcasting services licences in the areas provided in the schedule below.
“Free-to-air community broadcasting services means a free-to-air broadcasting service not operated for profit or as part of a profit enterprise, which provides programmes for community purposes and is capable of being received by the community available, does not broadcast programmes or advertisements on behalf of a political party and otherwise comply with any classification criterion that may be applicable to such a service in terms of subsection (2) of the Act.”
The call also indicated that the application fee is US$400 and the licence fee is pegged at US$800 for a period of 10 years.
Areas listed as eligible are Chivhu, Gokwe-Nembudziya, Chivi, Marondera, Kanyemba, Sanyati, Dande, Makoni, Gutu and Uzumba-Maramba Pfungwe.
Y-FM director Philani Ncube yesterday said they were surprised to see that Section 10 of BSA still exists yet they petitioned the relevant authorities to have it removed.
“Moreover, we are surprised to see Bulawayo excluded from the issued call. Our question is: Are the communities forced to accept anything decided by the State? There were some celebrations that we won independence in 1980. Who won the independence? Is it the communities or a few individuals out of all the people in the communities?” Ncube said.
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“The communities are the ones to identify places in need of community radios, not organisations set up by the government in a given country.
“We are certainly not happy about this. It seems the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services is refusing to implement what is wanted by broadcasters, but he is busy implementing political moves in each and every corner of the country.”
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Broadcasting Services visited Bulawayo on December 19, 2024 to conduct public hearings on the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, a programme that ran from December 16 to 21, 2024 around Zimbabwe and stakeholders submitted their input towards the Bill.
Ncube said he managed to attend the public hearing and contributed on behalf of Y-FM.
Y-FM had petitioned government through Parliament sometime in 2020 over the matter, appealing for the Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services ministry to amend the Act.
In response to the petition through a letter dated January 26, signed by then ministry acting permanent-secretary Jonathan Gandari, then deputy minister Kindness Paradza said stakeholders had agreed that the section should be amended to oblige the authority to call for licence applications twice a year subject to availability of spectrum.
“In the proposed amendments of the Broadcasting Services Bill, the relevant section is being amended to allow the authority to call for applications twice a year subject to availability of spectrum. The Broadcasting Amendment Bill is currently before the Cabinet committee on legislation for consideration,” the letter read.
The petitioners further raised the issue of overlapping radio stations since licensing does not allow overlaps in radio stations, which Paradza attributed to limited national frequencies.
In response back then, Paradza indicated that Baz was facing technical limitations as there were limited national frequencies until digitisation is complete, adding that allocation of available frequencies was being done in phases.
The letter also indicated that Paradza was set to engage with stakeholders regarding granting of licences to communities of interest.
It noted that the ministry had urged Y-FM to submit its application for a broadcasting service licence as requested in the petition.
The ministry stated that in terms of planning, licensing of players was being done in stages.
On February 8, 2023, the Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda responded to Ncube's letter dated January 10, 2023, in which he requested for an update on the progress made in implementing the committee’s recommendation in relation to his petition regarding the issuance of community radio station licences.
Chokuda said “the committee requested an update from the ministry on the implementation of the committee’s recommendations”.
Ncube later said according to their petition to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Information and Broadcasting Services, they collected signatures from the youth at the beginning of 2021 and the petition was delivered to Parliament in March2021.
