News / National
Mugabe to engage Zuma over 1st TV
19 Jul 2013 at 04:57hrs | Views
GOVERNMENT will engage GPA facilitator South African President Jacob Zuma in the wake of the intensification of pirate broadcasts into Zimbabwe that has sucked in Sentech, a parastatal that carries the signal of the three SABC stations.
This comes in the wake of the scheduled launch today of the British government-funded pirate television station, 1st TV, set to fill the void left by the removal of the SABC signal from the Free To Air platform three weeks ago
Zanu-PF observers have queried whether it was coincidental that Sentech scrambled the SABC signal effectively removing the three channels from the FTA platform three weeks ago, only to have 1st TV announce its arrival on the same platform three weeks removed.
The SA signal carrier was in Harare this week negotiating with ZBC in a bid to get it to carry the SABC channels when it had left a platform for pirate broadcasts.
Contacted for comment on the development Media, Information and Publicity permanent secretary Mr George Charamba said Government was aware of the technical co-operation between Sentech and VOA and would pursue diplomatic channels.
"We have been aware of the technical corroboration between VOA and Sentech, what we did not expect was this expansion of that corroboration. Also we are not very sure if the South African government is aware of what its parastatal is doing to hurt Zimbabwean interests. We will pursue diplomatic channels," he Charamba said.
"We are alive to this connection and we will be taking decisions mindful of the need to cripple this pirate television broadcast station," Mr Charamba said.
Zanu-PF claims the MDC-T's push for an October poll was meant to give various western projects launched to abet its campaign sufficient time to be established, and the Constitutional Court ruling ordering polls by July 31 had brought forward the 1st Tv project.
This comes in the wake of the scheduled launch today of the British government-funded pirate television station, 1st TV, set to fill the void left by the removal of the SABC signal from the Free To Air platform three weeks ago
Zanu-PF observers have queried whether it was coincidental that Sentech scrambled the SABC signal effectively removing the three channels from the FTA platform three weeks ago, only to have 1st TV announce its arrival on the same platform three weeks removed.
The SA signal carrier was in Harare this week negotiating with ZBC in a bid to get it to carry the SABC channels when it had left a platform for pirate broadcasts.
"We have been aware of the technical corroboration between VOA and Sentech, what we did not expect was this expansion of that corroboration. Also we are not very sure if the South African government is aware of what its parastatal is doing to hurt Zimbabwean interests. We will pursue diplomatic channels," he Charamba said.
"We are alive to this connection and we will be taking decisions mindful of the need to cripple this pirate television broadcast station," Mr Charamba said.
Zanu-PF claims the MDC-T's push for an October poll was meant to give various western projects launched to abet its campaign sufficient time to be established, and the Constitutional Court ruling ordering polls by July 31 had brought forward the 1st Tv project.
Source - herald
