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.
The National Community Radio Forum issued a press statement after their meeting with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) yesterday.
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.
“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
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.
The tags below are just some of the names of individuals who have received training through the work of Bush Radio
During her visit, the deputy minister said that she is visiting Africa’s oldest community radio station project to better understand the challenges facing the sector and the unique challenges facing each station.
Intensive discussion with Bush Radio regarding the state of community media
After the visit to Bush Radio, Kekana addressed the National Community Radio Forum Western Cape Meeting where she said that the Sentech issue; where stations’ transmissions were cut due to arrears, was a wake-up call to the Department of Communication.
She said that the discussion on the challenges would be taken forward at the proposed Community Media Summit, and that the summit would be solution orientated.
The Deputy Minister being shown the operational transmitter used in Bush Radio’s pirate transmissions pre-1994
The Deputy Minister also discussed the role of government to provide an enabling environment for the sustainability of community broadcasters by assisting in opening doors from corporates through advertising.
The Minister of Communications, Ms. Nomvula Mokonyane has received a commitment from Sentech to reconnect all suspended stations and halt any suspensions while looking for solutions to assist the community radio sector. Mokonyane issued the statement after a meeting with Sentech, the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF), the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) on Friday, 20th April 2018.
The Minister also committed to hosting a Community Radio Sector Summit to be held in May 2018, that will provide a platform to further explore the variety of challenges and opportunities that obtain within the sector.
“The community radio sector is a critical communication platform to ensure we provide our people with access to information in their communities as a means towards the creation of an informed citizenry. It is for this reason that we cannot allow the sector to collapse” said Minister Mokonyane.
As we celebrate our 21st birthday, we are running a pledge drive during our birthday month – from the 1 – 31 August 2016 – where YOU can make a donation towards our work.
As a non-profit community radio station, we call on former interns, staff, volunteers, board members, NGOs/CBOs, artists, musicians, designers and companies who have benefitted from our broadcast and training services 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: 051001
Address: 37 – 39 Main Road, Mowbray, Cape Town, 7700
Swift code (for foreign donations): SBZAZAJJ
If you would like a receipt for your donation, email the proof of payment to donate@bushradio.co.za
For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us on 021 448 5450.
Bush Radio’s Managing Director Brenda Leonard gave the committee members and MDDA a tour of the station and after that gave a short presentation on the state of community media in South Africa.
Chairperson of the committee, Sikhumbuzo Eric Kholwane being interviewed
Some of the challenges that Bush Radio highlighted in the presentation included: Sentech-transmission cost, SAMRO‘s-calculation of fees, SAARF‘s research methodology and accuracy, the funding structure of community media in South Africa, as well as issues around the advertising industry and the current state of development of the community media sector.
After the presentation Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications Sikumbuzo Eric Kholwane thanked Bush Radio for being a long and outstanding example of a community radio station. He added that he is grateful that Bush Radio is still holding the fort, and a great example to coming generation.
MPs and other members of the delegation listening to the Bush Radio briefing
Member of Parliament and Chief Whip of the Committee on Communications Annelize van Wyk said Bush Radio is a better example of a community radio. Van Wyk added that Bush Radio serves as a blueprint of what community radio stations need.
MP Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen (left) making notes during the briefing
We have been really grateful to all the people who have given and shared goodwill with us to help keep the station going. The support has been amazing, from Aunty Val who dropped off sugar and tea, to singers Lira and Thandiswa Mazwai who recorded messages of support for us.
Appeals have also gone international; former interns have donated and our friends at Public Acheivement* in Northern Ireland have put together a screening of the Academy Award winning film Tsotsi this Sunday the 6th November 2011.
* Public Achievement is Northern Ireland’s leading youth-focussed civic education organisation, and over the last 9 years they have been a partner with Bush Radio in a variety of projects including a youth project addressing violence as experienced by young people.
At least one radio producer from each province of South Africa is included in the training with four coming from Western Cape stations. “The stations included in the training are mix of urban, peri-urban and rural stations,” says Brenda Leonard, the managing director of Bush Radio.
This training is taking place from the 24th October 2011 to the 4th November 2011, and will form part of a broader project called “Upgrading the technical and radio production skills of women in community radio to produce features and documentaries on women in science and engineering” that is funded by the UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). This activity falls within the framework of UNESCO contribution towards strengthening free, independent media and developing human capacity.
It is hoped that the project will not only benefit the women, but those radio stations they represent, and the broader community they broadcast too, as the skills attained during the training will improve the overall quality and content of each station.
Quanita Kamaar from Voice of the Cape said, “Participating in the training programme has enabled me to develop my skills and share what I have gained with the rest of the community.”
Another participant, Granny Makhinya from Phalaborwa FM, ended off by saying, “The training has given me the opportunity to develop my technical capabilities.”
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