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State security agents confiscate receivers
MISA-Zimbabwe
December 07, 2006

Zimbabwe’s security agents reportedly confiscated short wave radio receivers bought for rural teachers in Gokwe district in a desperate bid to bar them from listening to foreign stations that beam into Zimbabwe.

Raymond Majongwe, the secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe told MISA-Zimbabwe on 7 November 2006 that the radios had been confiscated from 17 teachers by persons who identified themselves as working for the President’s Office.

Majongwe said PTUZ bought the shortwave radio receivers for teachers in the area to enable them to keep abreast with developments in the country because of the poor television and radio signals of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings’ broadcasts.

He said the agents, suspected to be members of the Central Intelligence Organisation, confiscated the radios because they were brought into the country illegally. Majongwe said the radios were bought in Harare adding that PTUZ can easily present the receipts in question.

"I am told the radios were taken by people who identified themselves as coming from the President’s Office. We have their names but I cannot disclose any further details as we have handed the matter to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who are looking into the issue so that we can recover them.

"We are quite disturbed by these actions which infringe on the property rights of the citizens over their rightful ownership to property," said Majongwe.

These latest developments come in the wake of the constant jamming of the Voice of America’s Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa which broadcast on short wave from Washington DC and London respectively. The radio stations are manned by Zimbabwean journalists exiled in the United States and United Kingdom and serve as alternative channels of information to the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings.

Zimbabwean listeners and viewers tune into foreign television and radio stations in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique owing to the poor transmission signals and poor quality programming by ZBH.

Due to lack of transmission sites and depleted stations, only 30 percent of the country receives radio and television coverage from the state-controlled broadcaster while the other 70 percent relies on foreign stations.

Alfred Mandere the chief executive officer of Transmedia Corporation, the sole national signal carrier operator, is on record confirming the possibility of imminent broadcast blackouts. "The equipment is now old and definitely a transmission blackout for both television and radio is inevitable, it’s more like an old car that now needs to be replaced," said Mandere.

"Government must do something fast because eventually the blackout will dawn. There is need for national investment in the radio and television sector."

Transmedia has made an appeal for US$ 64 million to the government for the acquisition of new equipment from China, South Africa and Europe as part of its National Grand Plan aimed at replacing the existing 40-year old equipment and improve transmission coverage.

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