Zim govt urged to license community radio stations

ZACRAS, which is celebrating World Radio Day locally under the theme Sport and Cultural Diversity, said there had been no movement in terms of improving the broadcast media landscape in Zimbabwe. The association said that public broadcaster the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC) remained captured by the state and closed off to Zimbabwean citizens with an editorial thrust that was highly partisan while no community radio was licensed.

“It [the government] has not done anything yet. We are hoping that the many promises that the new government has made, and continues to make, will live to see the light of day and among them media reforms,” ZACRAS chairperson Perlagia Kapuya told Music In Africa. 

“Community radios are amazing tools for community development because they focus on what happens in their respective communities and community members can share information and solutions to address their shared challenges.

“They then strategise for advocacy and lobby if the problems require an outside authority to solve. It’s the nature of community radio to be wholly community-owned so they are neither private- nor state-owned. We have 28 such common radios in Zimbabwe," she said. 

Kapuya said music played a significant role in developing countries. “In a country with high levels of poverty, unemployment, political intolerance and other social ills, music has managed to unite the people of Zimbabwe and is a source of hope and comfort.” 

She challenged Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa to create a platform for new radio stations ahead of the elections in July.

“It's one thing to say there will be free and fair elections but another to actually act in a manner that substantiates the pronouncement,” Kapuya said.

“There can never be free and fair elections if there is no freedom of expression. If laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act are still being used to strangle citizens' voices, if there is selective operationalisation of the Broadcasting Services Act, then the pronouncement is just a talk show. There is no free and fair election without media freedom.”

Asked if there was any reason to celebrate World Radio Day considering the harsh media laws in the country, Kapuya said: “There is always something to celebrate when it comes to community radios, because even when radios are lacking, communities are there and in their small ways they are making strides in sharing information among themselves using whatever media is accessible to them.

“However, the licensure of community radios, which is meant to amplify community voices, can never be overcalled, and if you look at it from that angle, there is little to celebrate in a country where there is not even a single community radio licensed to broadcast.”

Meanwhile, a number of Zimbabwean community radio stations that are currently only able to operate online have echoed ZACRAS' call for media reform.

“As we celebrate this day, Nkabazwe Community Radio Station wishes to remind the government of Zimbabwe to license community radio stations, as these are mediums for community development. Radio brings colours of life to the fore through the power of voice and sound,” Nkabazwe Community Radio, which operates in the central Zimbabwean city of Gweru, said in a statement.

Patsaka NyamiNyami Community Radio, which services the community in Kariba in the north, said: “We also urge the Zimbabwean government to start effecting media reforms by opening up airwaves to community broadcasting in a bid to foster community development. However, a lack of will to do so will not defeat the purpose of community radios, which are all over Zimbabwe.”