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".
