Lihle Mbikwana from Bulungula Community Radio in the Eastern Cape got to spend some time at the station to learn more about the operations of Bush Radio.
Providing listeners in Cape Town and globally, with interesting and varied content is one part of the work done by Bush Radio.
As the oldest community radio station project in Africa, and known as the “Mother of Community Radio” we assist other community radio stations and organisations in navigating the media landscape and providing training.
The broadcast consisted of a “Taste of Cape Town with Wayne McKay, Lerato Mashile and Mitchum George followed by the WRHU team interviewing a Bush Radio panel consisting of:
This year in the lead up to World Radio Day, Bush Radio was invited to participate in a broadcast with WRHU Radio Hofstra University 88.7 FM in the United States as part of their global celebration.
Join us this Friday, 12 February at 3pm as we take the Cape Flats to New York and beyond.
Wayne McKay, Lerato Mashile and Mitchum George will host a “Taste of Cape Town” and this will be followed by the WRHU team interviewing Bush Radio Alumni and discussing the power of community media, its role in Africa, challenges, innovative radio programming, training and the impact of the station in Africa and globally.
The panel to be interviewed will consist of:
*Proclaimed in 2011 by the Member States of UNESCO, and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 as an International Day, February 13 became World Radio Day (WRD). This year WRD is divided into three subthemes:
Basic protective measures against the Novel #Coronavirus – click here
Official websites for accurate information regarding COVID19:
COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal
At 2pm on the 9 August, 2020, Bush Radio marks the 25th anniversary of broadcasting with a license from the broadcast authority.
Read: Bush Radio, Africa’s oldest community radio station project
9 August 1995 – South Africa’s first National Women’s Day – was chosen because we wanted to honour all the women who had been instrumental in giving rise to the community radio sector and establishing Bush Radio, in particular.
This year COVID19 has proven the importance of community media in helping the fight against the pandemic, by being a vital source of information and supporting the communities we serve through our programming.
Our events to celebrate 25 years of broadcasting were put on hold, but now we have an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve and look towards the next – dare we say it – quarter of a century!
During the pandemic, we can be together via 89.5FM and stream on http://www.bushradio.co.za
Thank you for your support, and keep safe.
Basic protective measures against the Novel #Coronavirus – click here
Official websites for accurate information regarding COVID19:
COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications has announced that Bush Radio’s Managing Director Brenda Leonard is one of the candidates shortlisted to fill one of four vacancies on the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) Board.
The addition of Leonard to the shortlist is a move in the right direction for the MDDA’s search for Board members, according to Bush Radio Programme Integrator Adrian Louw.
“Leonard’s standing within the community media sector, due to her commitment and level of integrity, as well as the wide range of skills she possesses, will be an asset to the MDDA. She has led Bush Radio through very trying times – and continues to do so – and the skills she’s gathered over 27 years of community radio involvement will provide the MDDA with much-needed direction on a strategic level.”
She spearheads Bush Radio’s drive to ensure more support for the community media sector.
Leonard is the Western Cape’s provincial secretary of the National Community Radio Forum, volunteer bookkeeper at the Mitchells Plain Advice and Development Project, and is on the journalism advisory committee for the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and a founding delegate of the United Nations Global Alliance on Media and Gender.
Related:
Community Media demands to be heard
Ministers indifferent to the plight of the community radio sector
UPDATE: Community Radio Under Attack From Sentech Demands
The end of revolutionary radio in South Africa?
Basic protective measures against the Novel #Coronavirus – click here
Official websites for accurate information regarding COVID19:
COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal
Regulations and Guidelines – Coronavirus Covid-19
Western Cape Government Health Department
The National Community Radio Forum issued a press statement after their meeting with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) yesterday.
The meeting was held to discuss the current crises with regards to the planned closure of certain community radio stations by the broadcasting authority.
Again Bush Radio is very concerned about these developments and we believe that a closure of one station is worrying. We call upon all parties involved to look for an amicable solution for the continued survival and growth of the community radio sector.
We also encourage communities, individuals, organisations and businesses to support their community radio stations.
Related:
Community Media demands to be heard
Don’t just like what you hear.
The end of revolutionary radio in South Africa?
The following is an extract from an article by Dan Corder for Africa is a Country.
“In the small meeting room buried deep within Bush Radio’s second-floor offices on Victoria Road in Salt River, central Cape Town, and lying alongside an ancient Zenith Trans-Oceanic analog radio are two maroon leather cases.
These cases are marked with the iconic golden dog and gramophone logo of His Master’s Voice, formerly the Victor Talking Machine Company. These cases contain original recordings of speeches, debates, poetry, and music performed by South African anti-apartheid activists—those deemed so dangerous that they were banned from gathering or speaking publicly by the then-government.”
If you would like to see us continue our work or have been touched by it please show your support through a contribution via our GIVEGAIN campaign or directly into our account:
Bank: Standard Bank
Account Name: Bush Radio
Account Number: 07 122 0194
Branch Name: Mowbray
Branch Code: 004909
Bank address: 37 – 39 Main Road, Mowbray, Western Cape, South Africa, 7700
SWIFT address: SBZA ZA JJ
Related:
Community Media demands to be heard
What Africa’s First Community Radio Project, Bush Radio, Needs
Desperate days for local papers, radio
Capetonians asked to help keep Bush Radio going
This morning during a scheduled engagement with the Community Media sector and the new Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu before his budget vote to Parliament, members of the sector handed a memorandum to the minister to highlight the current plight of community media.
The Minister felt that he was ambushed by the sector as he was under the impression that it was a simple “meet and greet”.
Below is the memorandum as it was issued.
MEMORANDUM TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY, 17 July 2019
Community radio, print and TV sectors
Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, the country has made impressive gains in the promotion of media diversity through support for emerging, small commercial newspapers and community broadcasting services serving the majority of the people who were previously excluded.
In the early 90’s media activists, many of whom are in this room today, fought for the establishment of the Media Development and Diversity Agency, tasked with the supporting community and independent media in South Africa. Since then the regulator has license over 200 community radio reaching an estimated audience of 8 million and 6 community TV stations reaching an estimated, collective audience of 14 million.
Community Newspapers by Independent publishers print in excess of 6 million copies per month with a readership that exceeds 20 million South Africans in all 11 official languages. Collectively the sector employs tens of thousands of previously disadvantaged individuals countrywide.
Unfortunately, in the last decade or so, these impressive gains have been rolled back as stations have struggled for survival in the face of weakened institutions (MDDA, GCIS and ICASA), state capture, government complacency and failed promises.
Year after year the sector attends “engagements” with the DoC, GCIS and the MDDA. Every year we regurgitate the same challenges and propose the same solutions. Every year the government and its agencies promise to address the issues and then nothing is done.
This year is different. The community media sector is on the verge of collapse with an estimated collective debt sitting at around R180 million. This is made up largely of debts to SAMRO & CARPASSO, SENTECH, SARS and rental. As we speak stations are being served eviction notices from their premises, retrenching staff and getting deeper into debt.
It makes no difference whether the MDDA and GCIS report to the DoC or to the Presidency, as long as something gets done. The sector simply cannot be allowed to fail.
We call upon the Presidency to implement the following immediate measures:
• Provide emergency relief funding to pay off the collective debt to SARS, SENTECH, SAMRO & CARPASSO (paid to stations or directly to debtors – to avoid CSD challenges) – R150 million for radio, R15 million for TV and R15 million for print.
• Increase MDDA budget to allow for annual grant for all community broadcasters and increased support for print publishers.
• Build MDDA capacity at board and operational level to speed up grant approval and disbursement.
• Implement the Parliamentary Portfolio Directive (Nov, 2011) to spend 30 % of government adspend on community media.
Additional measures to improve the sustainability of the sector are outlined in the full memorandum
Bush Radio is non-profit community radio and has been offering broadcast and training facilities to the people of Cape Town for the past 23 years, since before our first legal broadcast on the 9th August 1995.
An example of training course conducted at Bush Radio in 1993
As we celebrate our 23rd birthday, we are running a pledge drive during our birthday month – from the 1 – 31 August 2018 – where YOU can make a donation towards our work.
Bush Radio newsroom trainees in 2005 (front Nadia Samie and Lunga Guza , back: Megan Paulse, Busi Mtabane and Bronwen Heather-Dyke
We call on former interns, staff, volunteers, board members, NGOs/CBOs, artists, musicians, designers and companies who have benefited from our broadcast and training services or who want to support our work, to contribute towards making a difference in the lives of others.
Through such donation, you will contribute to the continued existence of Bush Radio, and also make the opportunity available to others to benefit from Bush Radio’s services.
Our bank details are as follows:
Bank: Standard Bank
Name of account: Bush Radio Training Account
Account number: 07 119 4185
Branch name: Mowbray
Branch code: 004909
Address: 37 – 39 Main Road, Mowbray, Cape Town, 7700
Swift code: SBZAZAJJ (for international donations)
If you would like a receipt for your donation, email the proof of payment to donate@bushradio.co.za
For more information please feel free to contact us on 021 448 5450
If you are a (small or large) business you may want to consider showing your support by taking out an advertising package on the station.
Brenda Leonard and Adrian Louw
By Emma Derr
A few weeks ago, Bush Radio Managing Director Brenda Leonard and Programme Integrator Adrian Louw were nominated for the esteemed Nat Nakasa Award – and it’s just been announced that they made the 2018 shortlist!
The award is named after South African journalist Nat Nakasa, and is given to individuals who show exceptional integrity and courage in their work.
Nakasa embodied fearless journalism at a time – the 1960s – when media was anything but free. During a period when black voices were rarely printed or heard in the news, Nakasa was one of the most important and influential anti-apartheid reporters.
The award is awarded annually by the SA National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), Print Media SA and the Neiman Society.
SANEF says that those who are nominated must have “shown integrity and reported fearlessly and tenaciously striven to maintain a publication or other medium despite insurmountable obstacles”, as well as resisted censorship and displayed commitment to serving the South African people.
She began working at Bush Radio in 1993 and says that the biggest accomplishment of her career is ensuring that Bush Radio is on air and legal at all times.
Nat Nakasa was often called a brave journalist, and Leonard says South Africa still needs people like this, even in the post-apartheid era, because journalists can expose corruption and educate.
“Even when there were threats to our sustainability, Bush Radio is important historically and currently influential,” Leonard said.
She said that Bush Radio has shaped the establishment and legislation of the Media Development Diversity Agency, which was created by an Act of Parliament to help disadvantaged communities who lack access to media.
Louw says, while Brenda Leonard keeps the organization running, he is responsible for programming, staffing, and mentoring.
He says his favorite part of the job is creating a safe space for young people to develop and become courageous journalists.
“The experience people have here changes lives and that’s the joy of being a part of an organization like Bush Radio,” Louw said.
He said that through his career, he has witnessed Bush Radio at the forefront of developing and defending the community sector of radio in the country. He said he considers Bush Radio one of the last “truly independent voices for the community”.
“I think we create hope in people about what’s possible,” Louw said. “We only rise when the lowest of us rise, and Bush Radio has and always will rise with the people we serve in the community. This is my small contribution to making South Africa better.”
The winner of the Nat Nakasa Award will be announced on Saturday, June 23 at Randlords in Braamfontein, Johannesburg*.
Related:
BBC: Nat Nakasa reburial: South African writer’s remains return
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Bushradio 89.5 FM 