“We are beginning to see a confirmation of our fears that the process will be so prolonged that we will not see the opening of the airwaves before the end of this year,” said a MISA representative.
BAZ on Friday placed an advert in the state-controlled Herald Newspaper announcing that it would, on October 18, hold a public hearing on Kiss FM which is among the 14 applicants.
“What we witnessed last week was a small advert hidden on page 4 of the Herald buried somewhere in the paper, announcing that they are beginning public hearings with one radio station on the 18th of October and we do not know when other public hearings will be conducted.
“If they are going to do this one by one I do not see the inclusive government sticking to its deadline of opening up the airwaves by November in accordance with the election roadmap,” MISA national Director, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, said in an interview on Monday.
In May, BAZ invited applications for two free to air national commercial radio licences. Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe and other NGOs have been questioning the legality of BAZ, which continues to operate without being reconstituted as stipulated by the GPA.
Post published in: News