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
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
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.
* Bush Radio is publishing the full press statement below issued by concerned community radio station managers in the interests of the community radio sector
13 April 2018
Sentech action gags community radio – A call to protect this valuable resource of community radio which provides media access to marginalised peoples.
More than 6 community radio stations across the country – including Hope FM, Forte FM and Karabo FM – are no longer broadcasting to their communities because their Sentech accounts are in arrears. Dozens of other stations are receiving threatening letters saying they face a “suspension of their services” if they do not pay up immediately.
“We asked to make a payment arrangement with Sentech, but the company’s expectations for a payment plan were unrealistic,” Duncan Sinthumule, Station Manager from Karabo FM in Free State says.
Sentech then declined the payment plan offered by the Karabo FM and wanted the station to pay R116,458.00 “immediately” with monthly payments of R52,152.90 for 18 months until the debt is settled.
”We cannot even afford to pay R15,000.00 per month, how will we be able to stick to their payment plan?” Sinthumule said.
As non-profit entities, community radio stations are expected to raise their own funds through advertising, sponsorship and fundraising.
The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), a SOE created with the mandate to amongst others “promote media development and diversity by providing support primary to community and small commercial media projects” only receives a small budget from the Department of Communications (DOC), and cannot provide support to over 200 community radio stations in South Africa.
Radio stations have called for a meeting with Minister of Communications Ms Nomvula Mokonyane to discuss the matter, with an expected meeting in the week of April 16.
Our demands follow…
We demand:
A moratorium on suspension of services by Sentech, and the switching-on of those stations taken off air
Debt write-off or DOC to release funds for Sentech debt
Restructuring of Sentech pricing for community radio stations
An annual grant to community radio stations
These demands are not unreasonable. As community radio stations, we operate under slow-growing economic climate that makes income via advertising very difficult.
Unlike commercial radio stations, we spend our broadcast hours promoting democracy, nationalism, social cohesion, cultural practices, local indigenous languages and local music. We educate, inform and entertain our communities we serve, and do this – in most instances – without any support from the government.
Taking community radio stations off air is an attack on media pluralism, negating the gains made in the media under the democratic government over the past 22 years. It will take us another 20 years to recover from this damage caused by Sentech.
After a few months of construction, tweaking (and some twerking) and training we officially launch the Bush Radio Digital Broadcast studio today 1 May 2015 in honour of all the workers who have sacrificed for our democracy and helped to open the airwaves in South Africa.
The new digital studio will help Bush Radio to continue to be the leading incubator of young radio talent on the continent while providing listeners with the best quality sound possible.
The Rantho-Letsebe Award for Radio is conferred in honour of Tshepo Rantho and Harry Mtshana Letsebe. Rantho and Letsebe were two of the pioneers of community media who, among other outstanding contributions, were at the forefront of the initial process leading to the Community Media 2000 Conference in 1995 and played a role in the development of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) Act of 2002 and the MDDA Regulations.
The past September school holidays saw Bush Radio host a very successful Media Kidocracy Konfrence (MKK2013) – 22 to 27 September 2013. This was the 13th conference which drew young people from Bontheheuwel to as far away as Germany, participating in various discussions and productions around the theme “the role of media in democracy“.
The conference took place at the beautiful Mizpah Conference Centre in the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve near Grabouw.
Team 1 of the photography group dealt with sexism and sexist stereotypes
Besides plenary sessions which dealt with media literacy, gender and elections, the conference also included visits to various media outlets around Cape Town (radio, television, print and online) and a special “give back to the community” outreach session at Agape 2 – home for disabled and abandoned children. The conference also included lifeskill sessions on active citizenship and substance abuse as well as daily outside broadcasts from Grabouw.
Team 2 of the photography group dealt with nature and pollution
The conference programme closed with what delegates always consider a highlight; the intensive production workshops which this year again included: television, radio, online, print, photography as well as two new productions; t-shirt and poster printing and a stage drama.
A special thanks goes to all the Bush Radio Children’s Radio Education Workshop (CREW) facilitators and volunteers as well as the Bush Radio staff and trainees who provided the logistical support for the conference.
Bush Radio staff checking out “Media on the Move” – the newspaper produced by MKK2013 delegates
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