Help for radio launch
THE Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is to investigate three options to help Southside FM Radio get over its protracted struggle to secure an FM frequency.
The options were proposed at a meeting Southside had with Icasa chief executive Pakamile Pongwana and licensing general manager Norman Gidi in Durban on Friday. They are:
■ Icasa will again investigate the possibility of Southside being granted Radio 2000 frequency on the Bluff.
■ Icasa will initiate negotiations with DStv for Southside to start broadcasting through one of its channels – and investigate assistance given to Southside to use DSTV.
■ Icasa will investigate the possibility of Southside starting to broadcast on medium wave.
The latest meeting was a direct result of earlier talks Southside held with the former premier of KwaZuluNatal and current ANC treasurergeneral, Zweli Mkhize, in Durban last month.
At that meeting, Mkhize said Southside was not only a project of South Africans of South Indian origin but his own because he was the province’s premier when Southside was mooted in 2010.
That was also the year the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in South Africa was celebrated.
Mkhize told Southside officials it was unacceptable that they’d had to struggle for a frequency for almost seven years.
He initiated a process for top ministers and Icasa to intervene to help launch the radio station.
The meeting with Mkhize and Icasa officials was initiated following the intervention by one of Southside’s benefactors, Deva Poonoosamy, who is based in London.
Poonoosamy arrived in South Africa in January to visit family and attend the ANC’s 105th anniversary celebrations.
He was also at the meeting with Icasa officials on Friday.
Among those present were Sally Padaychie, chairwoman of Southside; Richard Naidoo, deputy president and a senior official of the Andhra Maha Sabha of South Africa; Richard Govender, committee member and president of the KwaZulu-Natal Tamil Federation and senior official of the SA Tamil Federation; Southside deputy treasurer Denis Naidoo; and secretary, Marimuthu Subramoney.
Pongwana and Gidi told Southside office-bearers Icasa had done everything in its power in the past seven years to help it launch but had been thwarted by the lack of an FM frequency.
“We have supported Southside since its inception and our officials, including the late former chairperson, Dr Stephen Ncube, tried to provide Southside with a frequency,” said Gidi.
“The former chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, Eric Kholwane, had held several meetings with Southside and had convened a meeting of role players to help Southside. We even tried to get the SABC to release the Radio 2000 frequency on the Bluff, but investigations indicated this would affect the transmission to Radio 2000 listeners.
“There were also attempts to get Durban Youth Radio to share its frequency with Southside but this had not been successful because they had their own licence,” he said.
Pongwana said the latest proposals were further attempts to help Southside get off the ground.
“We will do everything on our part to help Southside with the new proposals,” he said.
Pongwana said an Icasa official would be appointed to liaise with Southside on the three proposals.
He said although there should be no timeline, the proposals put forward should be ironed out within two months.
“Let’s be positive that a solution will be found soon.”
Padaychie and the other Southside officials told Icasa that the South Indian-origin community had been given the runaround for too long and a solution needed to be found.
“Southside commits itself to playing a progressive role in our new, non-racial and democratic order and to the promotion of a peaceful, productive and cohesive society,” said Padaychie.
“One of the progressive roles would be teaching Zulu to listeners in KZN.”
Southside FM Radio was initiated in 2010 when people of Indian origin in South Africa were commemorating the arrival of the 1 860 indentured labourers.
Despite having been granted a broadcast licence in September 2011, Southside was unable to secure an FM frequency.
Southside’s prospective listeners are in and around Durban, on the North and South Coast, in Pietermaritzburg and northern KZN towns such as Ladysmith, Estcourt, Newcastle and Dundee, as well as the Pretoria-Johannesburg region, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth-East London.