Zimbabwe: Poor Radio, TV Transmission Riles Charamba

SECRETARY for Media, Information and Publicity Mr George Charamba has expressed concern over the poor transmission of radio and television services here. He said there was urgent need for Transmedia Corporation to rectify the problem. Transmedia Corporation is responsible for setting up equipment and broadcasting in the country.

"We are very unhappy with the television and radio transmission services in Beitbridge considering that the Government acquired state-of-the-art equipment for this project.

"We thought this was a done job and were about to send his Excellency Cde Robert Mugabe to commission the project, but that will have to wait until Transmedia sorts the mess here.

"You will note that radio trades on sound quality, but what we are getting here is a raw deal. Foreign radio stations are performing better than ZBC, and this is not good at all.

"We are taking up the issue with Transmedia and I call on them to do a better job for the community.

"We cannot have state-of-the-art equipment but fail to give quality services to the people."

"As Government, we will not tolerate this type of transmission. There is a strong need for them to acquire a standby generator to power the transmitters in the event of power outages."

He said other sectors were performing well in the province, except the communication sector.

"Everything else is moving on in terms of developmental projects, except radio transmission," he said.

Mr Charamba said Beitbridge and other border towns like Plumtree and Victoria Falls were key areas where ZBC had no monopoly of transmission, hence the need for quality service.

"We cannot have a situation where foreign broadcasters do better than us even if we have a transmitter in the area.

"From the situation on the ground, ZBC is now appearing like a foreign broadcaster in its own area of domain. This must change as soon as yesterday," said Mr Charamba.

The parastatal completed the installation of state-of-the-art television and radio transmission equipment in Beitbridge District in April last year. However, people in the area have been relying on South Africa for both television and radio reception.

(Source : The Herald via allAfrica.com)