Botswana responds to ZANU PF complaints over ‘pirate radios’

By Lance Guma
10 December 2009

Botswana’s government has poured cold water on claims from ZANU PF that it is hosting so-called ‘pirate radio’ stations from its territory. Presidential spokesman Dr Jeff Ramsey issued a statement noting ‘the re-appearance of allegations in a section of the Zimbabwe media’ but said Botswana did not ‘harbour any such radio stations.’

Ramsey said Voice of America’s Studio 7 was produced in Washington and ‘is only relayed from VOA facilities in Botswana, a fact which has, moreover, been acknowledged by the Government of Zimbabwe in the past. It can thus not be properly characterized as a radio station.’ Ramsey said there was nothing exceptional about this as for example the BBC had some 60 radio broadcast relays across Africa, ‘a third of which are located in the SADC member states.’

The statement also went on the explain how other broadcasters like Radio France International, Radio Netherlands and Radio Deutsche Welle (Germany) are among the other international broadcasters known to have relay facilities in the region. Ramsey also said ‘the VOA relay station, located near Selebi-Phikwe, has been in open operation for three decades. Its frequencies are filed with the International Telecommunications Union.’

With ZANU PF saying they would lodge a complaint to SADC over the broadcasts Ramsey blew a hole in that argument by stating the obvious; ‘The VOA relay transmitter was not constructed to relay to Zimbabwe alone, but to the region as a whole, including of course Botswana,’ he explained.

Ramsey also explained that ‘the hosting of international relays is consistent with the principle embedded in the SADC Protocol on Information, Culture and Sports which provides for a diversity of opinion and free flow of information in the region.’ An SW Radio Africa listener recently wrote in to question why ZANU PF would want external radio stations shut down when they did not allow internal ones to operate. ‘You close the external radio stations by allowing the internal ones to operate,’ he argued.

Unfortunately, for reasons that remain unclear, the MDC signed off on a unity government agreement which included the closure of external radio stations – knowing full well that they had no power over these broadcasts.