The IBA is keeping a close rein on Voice of Soweto, writes
Maria McCloy
The community radio station Voice of Soweto is pulling out the stops to comply with orders set down by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).
Voice of Soweto is currently broadcasting on a temporary 30-day licence after a tussle with the IBA which saw it threatened with closure last month. Now station manager Mpumi Dakile has adopted a more conciliatory tone and says: “We have embarked on efforts to satisfy the licence conditions.”
The Sowetan’s editor-in-chief, Aggrey Klaaste, has been brought in to help Voice of Soweto toe the line. He will be the neutral facilitator to oversee the process of an annual general meeting where a board will be elected by the station’s community.
All community radio stations must show that they are run and directed by their community. The IBA felt that the Soweto station had grown away from its target audience. It broadcasts from the centre of Johannesburg and didn’t cater to the full range of Sowetans.
According to the IBA’s head of monitoring, Mpifa Tsepe, by the time this licence is up, not all the changes have to be in place. It needs to be evident that steps are being taken to ensure that changes to comply with licensing conditions are taking place.
But the station’s young management cannot ensure that the community turns up in droves to attend the meeting. Last year only 14 residents turned up at a well-advertised meeting.
Dakile thinks more people will turn up for this one because of all the interest caused by media hype around the station closing.
He says the station has started inviting community organisations to put forward candidates to serve on the board. He feels confident that they are showing commitment to increasing community involvement.
Tsepe says changes have been made at Voice of Soweto. As of last week, there is now more educational programming. An English teaching show aimed at school kids began last week between 9am and 9.30am and there is now a computer-teaching show for an hour once a week between 3pm and 4pm.
There has alo been an increase in talk. Between 7pm and midnight Dakile has started “a talk-radio format, no music but talk around community issues. In the past we did have a night talk show but part of it had degenerated because from 9pm to midnight it had become a dedication show.” They have also struck a deal with The Sowetan to work together to convert the newspaper’s community pages into radio shows.
Tsepe has also indicated that there are some problem areas the station needs to consider. “They have invited about six community structures, which is very few indeed. Soweto is a community of a lot of people, there are so many youth groups, so many youth organisations. For Voice of Soweto to have invited only six organisations after two weeks of being given the licence is a bit on the downside.”
He also complained that Voice of Soweto has only started two of the 10 community forums it promised. But on the whole, the IBA’s prognosis is that “they are on the right track. The only issue is that they’re moving at a snail’s pace.”