COMMUNITY BROADCASTING - "City Press" on February 6 reported that the closure of Mpumalanga's only environmental radio station, Radio Safari, has left 15 DJs without employment in the capital city of the province, Nelspruit. The station was closed recently after the Independent Broadcasting Authority allegedly refused to renew the station's licence after five years on air. It is alleged that the station, which attracted a listernership of more than 35 000 people a day, did not follow some of the regulations which were agreed upon with the IBA when they were granted the licence in 1995. According to the newspaper the station was not supposed to broadcast as it did, only in English, but in Siswati as well. It was also allegedly to be based in Nelspruit from day one, but stayed in Johannesburg until 1998, when upon the IBA's insistence, it finally moved to the Mpumalanga capital. The station manager Dave Wards, said he was sorry the station had to shut down after doing so well over the years. He said that people who were used to the station would now have to look for alternatives. Wards said there was nothing they could do but to submit to the IBA's ruling. He said that there were some regulations which were not followed by previous managers who nevertheless were responsible for making the station run smoothly. He added that although there were problems, the IBA refused to listen to their side of the story. He said they wanted to rectify the mistakes made in the past.

CORRUPTION - The South African Press Agency reported that Public Protector Selby Baqwa predicted on February 9 that there would be a decline in corruption in the country in five years' time. "This is not idle optimism. Three years ago, I felt things were not going right. But things ate now being done that will make sure that corrupt criminals are as uncomfortable as possible," he said. Baqwa said that he could only smile at some public figures' statements that corruption would be rooted out by the end of the year. "Five years down the line we will definitely see less corruption". He welcomed the approach of prosecution-led anti-corruption probes adopted by the national director of public prosecution and the Scorpion police unit. Baqwa said the drive against corruption should include correcting the balance between the human rights of criminals and those of law-abiding citizens. "SA should not be one of the countries where criminals enjoyed almost the same rights as honest people. We have come to the realisation that there should be an appropriate balance," he said.

MEDIA AND RACISM - The SA National Editors Forum has strongly condemned subpoenas served by the Human Rights Commission on the editors of the "Sunday Times and "Mail & Guardian" newspapers. The editors were ordered to appear at the hearings into racism on the media in March, with refusal carrying a fine or a six month jail term. Sapa reported that Sanef chairperson Lakela Kaunda condemned the commission for invoking these statutory powers, saying it was a contravention of the fundamental freedom of the media clauses in the Constitution. "In invoking its powers of search, seizure and arrest against the two editors, the commission is charged by the Editors' Forum with a flagrant violation of South Africa's newly -won democratic right of a free press and requests that they be withdrawn," Kaunda said. Kaunda told Sapa that the forum had held several meetings with the commission, which implied that it would opt for dialogue. "On that basis we agreed to cooperate with them. So we did not expect anything so draconian,"said Kaunda. The two editors, Mike Robertson of the "Sunday Times" and Phillip van Niekerk of "M&G" received the subpoenas on February 11. The subpoenas do not list specific violations but request the presence of the two editors to enable the commission to shed light on how their publications handle the reporting of and commenting on national and international affairs and events which impact on race and racism. The commission's interim report, compiled by independent researcher Claudia Braude and the Media Monitoring Project, was released in November 1999. The Editors' Forum has acknowdged that there is racism in the media, but advocates eliminating it through discussions involving journalists, editors and victims. Meanwhile, the New National Party appealed to the commission to withdraw the subpoenas. The party said the commission should rather have sent written invitations to the editors, and let them choose whether to attend the hearings or not. In a statement, FXI said that it seemed unnecessary and heavy-handed to sub-poena newspapers to testify on their publications' policies regarding the reporting of national and international events which impact on racism and possible incidents of racism.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS - "The Citizen" on February 10 reported that the Justice Minister Penuell Maduna was congratulated by cellphone company MTN, which hailed his decision to let government pay for bugging cellphones. The state was trying to pressurise the service providers to pay for the equipment and pay for its maintenance. MTN and Vodacom had earlier objected to paying between R80 million and R100 million each for equipment to be used for the tapping of cellphones should changes to legislation proposed by the SA Law Commission be passed into law. MTN's group executive for corporate relations Jacques Sellschop said Maduna's pronouncement on the funding of cellphone monitoring equipment cut through mile of red tape and put an end to nearly a year's wrangling when he said the state had an obligation to provide money to get the necessary equipment. "Given the Minister's assurance that information gathering will take place strictly in accordance with the law and that the state will now fund the equipment to do so, we can address in a more positive frame of mind the agreements with service providers' as envisaged," Sellschop said. He indicated that Maduna however, realised how unfair it would be to impose an unbudgeted cost of some R70 million on incumbent operators and ultimately the consumer.

Meanwhile, Sapa on February 9 reported that Intelligence Minister Joe Nhlanhla said that the National Intelligence Agency will set up a national communications headquarters this year to monitor radio and cellphone signals. This would be used in the fight against crime. Nhlanhla said the centre would be bring SA's signals intelligence capability up to standard with other countries. Signal intelligence is the information acquired by monitoring the airwaves, according to Sapa. It includes radio communications and cellphone signals. Nhlanhla said that most Western powers have sophisticated communications headquarters where signal intelligence is gathered and routed to the appropriate intelligences or security authority. He said SA intelligence agencies were allowed to monitor cellphone or radio communications with the permission of a judge. "The cabinet justice and security cluster approved the consolidation of a signal intelligence capacity as a priority for this year. The Ministry for intelligence Services will spearhead the setting up of the national communication centre during the course of the year.This will provide us with a crucial weapon in our fight against crime,"Nhlanhla said. He indicated that the centre was not aimed at snooping on private conversations.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING - "Business Day" on February 10 reported that the preliminary hearings of three SA Broadcasting Corporation executive, named in a KPMG report which alleged commissioning irregularities, began in February 9, behind closed doors. The executives named in the report were the SABC's head of television Molefe Mokgatle, head of corporate communications Thaninga Shope and control account finance manager Prince Phaweni. Advocate Karel Tipp has been appointed as the independent chairperson of the hearings. Only one SABC employee has been called as a witness. The SABC's chief legal adviser Ronnie Bracks said the proceedings were expected to take three to five days. The chairperson would then consider the evidence and make his findings. Bracks said that like any disciplinary hearing, the executives have the right to appeal. The hearings are urgent as the term of the current board ends in February. Meanwhile, the departing chairperson of the SABC has criticised government for interefering, and has warned the new board that it faces significant challenges. Paulos Zulu, who will be replaced by SA Breweries' corporate affairs director Vincent Maphai, said that he and his fellow directors had identified challenges and developed objectives, but were then dictated to from above. Zulu said there were negotiations with the government, but often decisions were not independently made. He warned the new board that its members would "not know what they are in for until they actually walk through the SABC's door.

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