Community radio stations ideal for Botswana

TUMELO SETSHOGO
Correspondent | Wednesday November 7, 2007 00:00

 

These are the views of prospective Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) parliamentary candidate for Gaborone Central constituency Gomolemo Motswaledi and Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology Andrew Sesinyi. Both men said that they support community radio stations and that 'they can work in Botswana'. The duo expressed these sentiments during a panel discussion conducted by RETENG, the Multicultural Coalition of Botswna at the University of Botswana (UB) Centre for Continuous Education (CCE) last week. The topic was: Community Radio Stations - Can they work in Botswana'. Other panelist were Botswana National Front (BNF) publicity secretary Moeti Mohwasa, Dumelang Saleshando, Gaborone Central Member of Parliament (MP) and Botswana Congress Party (BCP) publicity secretary, and Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana chapter chairperson Laona Segaetsho. Sesinyi and National Broadcasting Board (NBB) chairperson Masego Mpotokwane were not among the panelists so that they could explain government policy.
Supporting the stations, Motswaledi said they enable communities unfettered opportunities to hear of developments and other important issues affecting their lives.

'They will contribute to the development of the country because they will now have access to the airwaves,' said Motswaladi. He said it is important to have information channelled to the people through any means 'and the radio is a very good and fast medium of communicating with the communities on developmental issues'.

Appreciating that problems are inevitable, he said bench marking is very important and should be carried out to see how other countries' private radio stations have fared. 'My main worry would not be how they (other countries) have managed to establish them, but where they went wrong and that's what we have to avoid,' advised the former BDP youth leader. He said there has to be structure and legislation put in place before setting up the stations so that they can be manageable and regulated accordingly. 'We also have to focus on the geographical set-up first before looking at the interests of the communities,' noted Motswaledi. He suggested that since there are different communities found in one specific area who speak different languages their interests should be catered for by these stations.

Sesinyi told the panelists that government is not against community radio stations, citing the formulation of the broadcasting policy, which has a provision for them. Like Motswaledi, Sesinyi said there has to be a comprehensive mechanism put in place so regulation of these stations could be smooth. He indicated that the Media Practitioners Act, would be put in place to regulate the industry.

Other panelists agreed that private stations are viable. They stated that countries such as South Africa have different radio stations, broadcasting in different languages to cater for various ethnic communities for easy information flow. 'The fear that these stations would fuel tribalism is unfounded as in South Africa there is no such tension. So why are we citing things that have not even happened?' asked Saleshando. He accused the BDP saying they don't like change. 'It is high time people contributed to the development of this country and we are saying community radio stations are the solution,' he said. The BCP chief said the Rwandan genocide must not be used as an excuse for not establishing the community radio stations in Botswana, 'because our communities are united and working together in everything'. Mohwasa and Segaetsho also threw their weight behind the establishment of the stations, saying it is long over due. They said government should not make excuses because of what has happened in other countries where people fought because radio stations had fueled ethnic tensions.

Tonota South MP Pono Moatlhodi, MISA Botswana director Modise Maphanyane and members of RETENG also attended the debate.