Radio Pretoria, a radio station catering specifically for ”boere-Afrikaners”, on Friday asked five appeal judges to order the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to reconsider an application for a four-year community broadcasting licence.
”We ask that the appeal be granted and that the application for a licence be referred back to the respondent,” said Gerrit Grobler, counsel for Radio Pretoria, at the hearing in Bloemfontein.
The Supreme Court of Appeal heard the appeal by Radio Pretoria against a decision by Icasa, which had refused it a broadcasting licence. After the Icasa refusal, the Pretoria High Court dismissed a review application brought by Radio Pretoria against Icasa.
Grobler submitted that central to the stand-off between the two parties were the different views on the definition of ”broadcast area” and its relation to ”licence area” as found in the broadcasting-regulation law.
The radio station argued the application covered the ”Johannesburg and Pretoria area” as its broadcasting target area. Icasa, however, submitted that the radio station applied only for a licence to broadcast in a smaller licence area, Area 18, where its signal tower is situated.
Area 18 is the rural area surrounding the station’s signal tower and has a very low population.
”The confusion can be seen throughout the [court] records,” said Grobler.
Over the past eight years, the station has continued to broadcast through several interim orders while in litigation.
It has been broadcasting since 1993 and until 1999 Icasa renewed its temporary licence every year. In 2000, its one-year renewal application was turned down, and in 2003 its application for a four-year licence was also refused.
Vincent Maleka, legal counsel for Icasa, submitted that there had never been a difference in opinion over the geographical area for which the station had applied.
He said the radio station’s licence application only referred to Johannesburg and Pretoria as a target area its signal would reach and that it had actually applied for the licence to Area 18. ”They made an application for licence Area 18 as demarcated.”
Maleka asked that if the judges decided to refer the matter back to Icasa for reconsideration, they give some direction on how the matter should be taken forward.
The radio station is still broadcasting. — Sapa