The irony of Zimbabwe's 'poor' jammers

By Lance Guma
23 August 2005

The company in charge of Zimbabwe's transmitters for radio and television broadcast has told a parliamentary committee on Transport and Communications that most of its equipment has outlived its lifespan. The chief executive of Transmedia Limited, Alfred Mandere says efforts to refurbish the transmitters are being hampered by inadequate financial resources. He said the equipment 'is now beyond its useful life and we are even surprised broadcasters are still on air because the situation is bad.'

The irony is not lost to Zimbabweans who are aware government invested many thousands of pounds in Chinese equipment to be used in jamming SWRA Shortwave broadcasts. Even after the station moved to medium wave they switched to jamming another Zimbabwean station Voice of the People which broadcasts to Zimbabwe via Radio Netherlands. The irony does not end there. Transmedia say a Chinese mining company wants to assist their transmitter expansion programme with a loan facility of 40 million United States dollars in exchange for mining concessions.

The government says it wants to expand its transmission coverage to all parts of the country but at the same time jamming the broadcasts of alternative voices on the airwaves.