Cala's Vukani community radio is on air

from: DAILY DISPATCH, April 26, 1996

QUEENSTOWN- Three years of planning by university students living in Cala were rewarded earlier this month as the Vukani community radio, broadcasting from the town,went on air for the first time. A former programme officer of the Cala University Students' Association (Calusa), Mr Godfrey Silinga, said at a launch the idea of a community radio was initiated in 1993.

It followed a workshop on integrated development which highlighted the difficulties in communicating with villages with which Calusa worked. An application was then lodged with the former Transkei Department of Post an Telecommunication, which transferred it to the then-ruling military council. The council referred the application to the South African Broadcasting Corporation, until the tabling of the request before the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).

Three Calusa representatives, Mr Siphiwo Liwani, Mr Sipho Tabo and Miss Zikhona Ngqwebo, and their legal advisers, continued to promote the idea of the station, until the licence was finally granted in February. Three technicians from Germany assisted in the installation of the station.

A radio forum, with two representatives from each organisation that will use the station, is to be formed to formulate programming. Vukani community radio can be received on FM 100-104 within Cala and its environ. An offical from the IBA yesterday confirmed that the licence had been granted for Vukani to operate. - DDR