Impact of Community Broadcasting on Rural Development in South Africa

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine and trace the impact of community broadcasting on rural development, in South Africa. Community broadcasting refers to both television and radio, however, this paper, will focus on community radio, due to its national prevalence. A historical overview of community broadcasting in South Africa will be outlined, briefly, which will lead to a discussion of community radio as an empowerment tool, because it provides the targeted communities with access to information, education and entertainment. All over the world, community radio has always empowered the disadvantaged, the dispossessed, through its ability to be a forum for freedom of expression. The broadcasting policies of the nineties in the new South Africa, were designed to provide the previously disadvantaged communities access to the airwaves and most importantly, "ownership and control" of community radio stations. Most of these communities live in areas that fit the definition "rural area". First, the concept of rural development will be addressed, followed by an overview of the history of the community radio sector in South Africa, so that a common understanding can be reached on (a) how community radio is involved in rural community development, (b) how it impacts on the community through its programming content, (c) how it uses its resources to build capacity in the communications sector by developing people, especially in radio, (d) how it ploughs back into the community through projects outside the station, and (e) how it really is a vehicle of social change and democracy, thereby assisting government in its strategy of rural development through by informing and educating the community on the Rural Development Framework , literally. Community radio therefore carries the mandate of the Department of Communications of access to information and access to the airwaves, combines it with that of the Department of Land Affairs, to develop rural areas.

An appreciation of the impact that community radio has on rural development requires an understanding of the concept "rural development". It is defined in The Rural Development Framework (1997:9) as:

"…helping rural people set the priorities in their own communities through effective and democratic bodies, by providing the local capacity …Investment in basic infrastructure and social services. ..Justice , equity and security; dealing with the injustices of the past and ensuring safety and security of the rural population, especially that of women"

The Rural Development Framework is a government initiative, which was developed by the Department of Land affairs in order to address rural poverty. Its strategy is to involve the community in the solution of their problems. The document seeks ways to address the following:

1. Involving rural people in decisions that affect their lives through participation in rural local government,
2. Increasing employment and economic growth in rural areas,
3. Providing affordable infrastructure,
4. Ensuring social sustainability in rural areas,

What is a rural area? The same document defines it as

"a sparsely populated areas in which people farm or depend on natural resources, including the villages and small towns that are dispersed through these areas including villages and small towns dispersed through these areas, includes large settlements in the former homelands, created by apartheid removals" p9

Rural areas are plagued by poverty with the most vulnerable sectors of the population being women, children and the elderly. Government through the RDP and the GEAR strategy would like to address the following issues among others:

• Social development in areas such as education and health
• Building Local Democracy and Development: To ensure service delivery
• Highlighting the role of National and Provincial in defining the needs of the local rural people
• Building Local Economic Development and Rural livelihoods
• Building Social Sustainability: Highlighting constitutional rights of the people
• In partnership with NGO’s facilitate rural initiative in developing these communities
• Safety, security, welfare and legal issues and highlighting Children’s rights

Before we look at the role that community radio plays in rural development, a brief historical overview of this sector will be provided in the next section.

Community broadcasting in South Africa is a very new phenomenon, which was the subject of debate during the early nineties, when there was talk of establishing an independent regulator for broadcasting just before the first democratic elections of 1994. The issue made its way into the Independent Broadcasting Act of1993, which established the regulatory authority and charted the vision for the "democratization of the airwaves" in South Africa.

Policy related to community broadcasting addressed issues such as (a) ownership and control of the community radio stations by the community, (b) broadcasting with no intention of making profit, (c) programming that addresses the issues of a particular community, issues which would not normally be broadcast by the public broadcaster, (d) the use of the languages of the people of that particular community, and other issues too numerous to mention.

The issue of access to information and communication made its way into the broadcasting and telecommunications laws of South Africa, namely, the IBA Act of 1993, the Broadcasting Act of 1999, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Independent Broadcasting Act of 2000, as well as subsequent amendments of the Acts.

The history of community radio, elsewhere in the world, reveals that it is a sector founded by communities seeking freedom of expression. Freedom of expression includes access to the airwaves, human rights, education, heritage, and about the development of the cultures, languages, and peoples of South Africa. The history of broadcasting in South Africa was one of dominance of the airwaves by the Apartheid government, which used it to spread their racist agenda. There was a lot of criticism against the SABC, then, which was also a regulator! Besides the ANC’s Radio Freedom, which was broadcasting from exile, there were no community radio stations, until the Council for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) indicated in 1991, that a task team was needed to look into the issue of broadcasting in South Africa, especially, the monopoly of the SABC. Representatives from the Mass Democratic Movement attended the Jubilant Freedom of the Airwaves Conference in Holland, and made input to CODESA (OSF-SA: 1999). While negotiations were going on, the Apartheid government went ahead and issued "community radio licenses" to rightwing stations. In protest, two unlicensed stations, Bush Radio (Cap Flats) and Radio Zibonele (Khayelitsha) went on air.

The above is an illustration of how similar the fight for "freedom of expression" is similar the world over, and how we learnt from the best! Community radio stations in South America, Chile, Argentina, Central America, and North America were founded as stations that would address the struggle for freedom of expression in protest against (a) repressive regimes, like South America and South Africa, (b) women’s struggles (Chile), (c) health care, legal rights (Argentina), (d) war (el Salvador), (e) fight for democracy, and against poverty and exploitation (Haiti and North America).

The discourse of the broadcasting and telecommunications laws of the new government, always revolves around the provision of education, information, and entertainment to all language and cultural groups, to empower women, the disabled, and the youth in broadcasting services. In the same way the content of the South African Telecommunications Act of 1996, was about the redress of the deficit of telephone access created by the previous regime, hence, the establishment of the Universal Service Agency, through latter Act, to ensure universal service and access.

Community broadcasting was used as a regulatory tool to destroy the monopoly of the public broadcaster, the SABC, whose content was biased towards the promotion of the Apartheid agenda of repression. The Authority was tasked with making policy on broadcasting, issuing licenses, and regulating and monitoring broadcasting in South Africa. The IBA Act of 1993 went ahead and classified broadcasting into (a) commercial broadcasting, (b) public broadcasting with SABC as the only monopoly, and (c) community broadcasting, in both radio and television. The first licenses for community radio were issued in the early nineties by the IBA. Chapter VI of the Act classifies community broadcasting into (a) community sound broadcasting service and (b) community television broadcasting service. This was done with the vision of allowing the previously disadvantaged communities access to the airwaves, especially since they would not have the capital to get into the commercial sector of radio.

Our classification of community radio stations is based on our understanding of culture as a set of entities that particular communities have in common. For example, (a) geographical communities are described as those having a particular place in common, such as, township, village, suburb, while (b) community of interest are those that have common ethnicity, occupation, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

It is difficult to define a community, however, there is a general agreement that each community has a culture of its own that it embraces. It has values that are shared such as solidarity, participation, and coherence. There are relationships of sisterhood and brotherhood in a community. Individuals benefit from being part of a particular community, because, there is a common purpose, there are beliefs that are shared whether they be religious, or geographic. Community radio is based on the assumptions that groups of people can be defined as communities with shared interests or goals, living in a particular district, and having a common identity and characteristics, such as language, religion, characteristic practices, etc.

Community radio is about the involvement of people in their own development. Community participation in the radio station is what ownership and control in the definition of community radio implies. Members of the community take the development of the community into their hands when they involve themselves in the community radio station, that is, as members of the Board, as Management in the station, as developers of the content of the programmes, and generally in volunteering to provide the human resources needed by the station. Community radio should be seen as a vehicle or instrument in developing the rural communities where these stations are based.

The aim of community radio is to serve a particular community through information, education, and entertainment, and to make the radio accessible to these communities. The radio stations are popular in these communities because they are not only friendly and run by staff known to the community, they are also physically accessible because the people can walk to these stations and can participate fully in their programming. In many of the rural areas, where there is still a chieftaincy, the community radio has become the best means through which the chiefs can address the people who live in these areas about important matters. In the present system of local councils in South Africa, community radio is one of the vehicles of communication used by government to inform or educate citizens about important constitutional matters, such as human rights, new legislation, and what they can expect from their local councilors.

Historically speaking, group listening has always been a part of the Africa culture, or example, storytelling, village meetings (lekgotla, indaba, imbizo), meetings of women, celebrations to welcome the return of the initiates from the mountain schools, and others too numerous to mention. In later years, radio clubs were established, whereby discussions on problems affecting communities were pre-recorded and then broadcast.

Radio Moutse, was started by the Rural Women’s Movement, who decided to use radio to educate and organize rural women, (DeBeer: 1998). Subsequently the women were trained to run the radio station. This should be seen as development in action. Community radio should therefore be seen as a technology tool, which has just simplified the (a) calling village meetings by walking around the village, (b) announcing of issues like loss of animals, children, and announcing the death, and others.

Mission statements of community radio stations always include "development of the community through information, education, and entertainment". A few read as follows, see Directory (2001):

1. To keep our community informed and to revive, retain, and sustain our cultural heritage, traditions and norms (Botlkokwa Community Radio)
2. To empower the community by sharing skills and providing training; to eliminate crime and promote health awareness (Mohodi Community Radio)
3. To develop the Moletje community through educational and cultural broadcasting (Moletje Progresive Community Radio)
4. To operate an effective and sustainable community radio that will champion health care and community development within and around Sekhkhune area (Sekhukhune Community Radio)

Rural communities are indeed the beneficiaries of development through CR, which is enabling them to run their own stations. CR plays a vital role in mediating between government and its people, by conveying information and educating the people about development related issues such as water and sanitation and energy policy; rural housing programmes, safety, security and legal issues; children’s rights, rural health, rural education; security and welfare, how local government works, and what they should expect regarding service delivery. Community radio empowers the community on their democratic rights and how they can get involved in their own development in order to beat rural poverty.

The following discussions will use information from case studies conducted by the author in the Limpopo Province (formerly, Northern Province) between April and May of 2002. The intention was to be able to discuss recently acquired information from the selected stations, all of which are in rural setting. However, other community radio stations will also be used to illustrate how they have impacted on the development of their communities, through references or sources consulted.

We have to emphasise here, that most of the community radio stations in South Africa are situated in areas that can be described as rural, as the definition of rural area above, indicated. Therefore it is safe to generalise and state that most of what will be discussed is evidenced in most community radio stations, especially because the stations are founded on the same principles and on the same legislation of the country, namely, the IBA Act. The stations strive all the time to adhere to the requirements as stated in their license conditions

CR stations selected for the study conducted serve rural and semi-urban communities, which fit the definition of "rural areas" very neatly.

The six stations selected were Radio Turf, Univen Radio, Moletji Progressive Community Radio, Mohodi Community Radio, Botlokwa community Radio, Sekhukhune Community Radio. Honours students in Media Studies at he University of the North (Class of 2002) visited the stations with prepared questionnaires. They interviewed, station managers, programming managers, marketing managers, production managers, presenters, some members of the board, and people from the community who are usually enjoy being around the radio stations at these communities.

Community participation is one of the ways community radio develops rural communities. Involving the community in decision-making regarding their radio station is a practice in democracy. People in the community are empowered in the ability to debate issues and be part of decision-making in community matters. They eventually start thinking differently, instead of thinking about what the government can do for them, instead, they begin to think about how they can develop their community through their contribution to the station. In other words, they are freed from dependency.

The very knowledge that there is a possibility of being trained in something, for free, is an incentive for the people to want to get on the bandwagon and participate in developing the station. Community radio develops these rural communities, because it gives the individuals in these rural communities a better self-esteem, confidence, and a belief in self, even if they are unemployed, and do not have a career, because by doing something for their communities, through participation as volunteers, makes them better people.

Members of the communities participate not only as volunteers in the staffing of the stations, but they also can play an important role as board members, programming committee members, marketing management committees, and other decision-making process. Community radio develops and builds capacity through people development at a personal level through training and participation. The oldest people in these communities feel a sense of achievement after being invited to the station to discuss cultural matters, or to sing in a choir.

With the guidance received from ICASA in terms of license conditions, the members of the communities learn about the fact that membership in the community radio station, such as for example, the board, have to be representative in terms of gender and other diversity issues such as language and culture. During the process leading towards the application of the license, community members learn that all structures in the community such as, youth structures, women’s organizations, churches, business, non-governmental organizations, and others need to be represented in the running of the station. These are the founding principles of democracy on which community radio is based. These principles are imparted to the community in a practical way, through community broadcasting. People eventually develop a sense of the real issues, needs, priorities and priorities that affect their communities. They are hen able to propose possible solutions to problems that can be solved by the community.

Continuous training required in community radio, because staff working in these stations are usually volunteers who would like to contribute to their communities through radio. Community radio is about people development. Volunteers with no previous experience in radio or any form of broadcasting, ultimately acquire these skills through on-the-job training provided at these stations. Training is usually offered through agencies such as, the National Community Radio Forum, if the station is a member of the NCRF, non-governmental organizations, or institutions of higher learning. On-going training is also necessary in order to sharpen the skills of those already doing the work, and to empower the experienced in providing constant training to others.

Constant training is also necessitated by the fact that, there is a high attrition rate at community radio stations, as the stations lose their best staff to other radio stations, be they commercial or public. In other words, after training and experience obtained from the community radio sector, the incumbents would usually get "real jobs" in the broadcasting arena. This, therefore, should not be seen as a negative factor, but rather as one of the best contributions made by the community radio sector in human resource development and ultimately in rural development. Therefore, community radio stations in the rural areas, as well as elsewhere, should be seen as providing the training ground for commercial and public broadcasters. Losing staff in community radio stations is itself a negative, paradoxically, though, this could be used as a measure of the impact that this sector has had on rural development!

To take it further, some of the people attached to the NCRF and other agencies providing training, have their roots at the community radio stations in the rural areas. Training is empowering to volunteers. According to Mphale & Lane (1998) training is one good incentive for volunteers. Training has developed quite a number of people in this sector, who have in turn become trainers, and later set up their own agencies for training.

It should be noted that training is not only received from outside agencies, in fact, the major part of training comes from inside the station, as on-the-job training or internal training, through exposure to the environment of radio. The volunteers learn how to (a) package programmes, (b) be good DeeJays, (c) be programming managers, station managers, marketing managers, etc. and (d) they learn how to be good presenters, talk show hosts, and others. But most of all, they gain confidence in whatever they are doing, because they work in a non-threatening atmosphere, where they are getting educated and informed, for free. This is indeed the best role played by community radio in rural development. Need we debate it?

Community radio is defined as a sector that is not for profit (IBA Act: 1993). They usually apply for donations from South African NGO’s. The CR stations are expected to be self-sustaining. Volunteers do not receive salaries, but incentives. Many of the stations operate under very difficult financial circumstances.

It is quite challenging to balance a "non-profit making" status with expectations of self-sustainability while keeping your good volunteers motivated to turn the station into a vibrant entity! The ability to manage financial resources under these circumstances is a challenge for community radio stations. It is indeed empowering to these communities in the end. Capacity is further developed through training in financial management through from organizations such as the IAJ, NCRF, universities (Rhodes U., Univ. of the Witwatersrand, University of Venda, University of the North) and other training institutions. Some CR stations such as those linked to university campuses, for example, Univen and Radio Turf, are fortunate, as they receive some financial support from their home institutions. At Univen, most volunteers receive a monthly incentive of at least R900. Together with the board, the station managers also acquire skills, not only in financial management, but, in fund-raising and proposal writing for the application of grants. Programming is perhaps, the one important aspect of the role that a community radio station plays in the development of a community

Programming is the backbone of any radio or television station. It is in fact a challenge faced by many community radio stations as the case studies showed. The contributions made by the stations through their programming, is especially vital, because most of these communities do not have electricity, and radio is in many a case the most affordable means for information and education, and communication. CR delivers formal and informal education to the community when they call in experts as guests to their programmes on a variety of topics. The following are just some of the issues addressed through their programme content:

Youth Programmes: Career choice, crime prevention projects (that involve the youth from the community) e.g. "youth against crime", whereby the youth and the police from the community are working together to combat crime

Social and welfare programme: hosted by social workers from the communities

Disabled Programmes: Disabled person hosts a programme for the disabled to raise awareness in the community on issues related to the disabled. Such programmes are meant to raise sensitivity toward the treatment of the disabled by their families and by the community. In many rural communities, people often associate having disabled children or children with albinism as a curse from the gods. The CR station educates the community and changes its attitude towards the disabled, by helping them to remove such stereotypes.

HIV/AIDS Pogrammes: All six stations had programmes on HIV/AIDS, which is currently a very important issue on the government’s agenda. At Mohodi Community Radio, there is no special HIV/IDS programme as such, instead, the issue is slotted into every programme of the station, thereby devoting five to ten miniutes for this issue.

The communities benefit from information about the disease, especially as it done so in their own languages. The radio stations are also involved in the HIV/AIDS network together with the NCRF, through the South African Community Radio AIDS Netowrk. They have also formed partnerships with health institutions and NGOs dealing with this pandemic to mobilize information and education about the disease.

Nurses, medical doctors, social workers, HIV positive people, and other organizations involved in the HIV/AIDS campaign come to the stations either as guests to already existing programmes, or are themselves volunteers who host such programmes on a regular basis at CR stations. The presenters educate the people about the causes of the disease, and assists families, friends, and the community to treat infected people with respect, and not to treat them as outcasts.

Women’s Programmes: All CR stations have a number of programmes presented by women on women’s issues and children’s issues. Through these programmes, CR stations contribute to the empowerment of women in these communities through programmes dealing with the abuse of women and children, domestic violence, and rape. Other women’s programmes also address issues such as, running your own small business, careers, beauty, health, religion and others. Radio empowers women in the rural areas, who are mostly illiterate. Through call-in shows, their problems are addressed, and certain myths and beliefs about their bodies, relationships, and so on are dispelled. Radio Moutse, a women empowerment and community development driven station runs a Gender Forum Project in the community. CR stations affiliated to the NCRF are members of the NCRF Women’s Network.

Children’s Programmes: All the stations interviewed indicated that they had children’s programmes. There were programmes that are actually hosted by children and youth in most of the station. A number of stations train the youth and children in script writing, presenting, for own shows, such as Bush Radio, others like Sekhukhune Radio train youth in Voice Production, Radio Drama, as well as sporting activities.

Voter Education and Elections: All community radio stations have made it their business to work with training organisations such as the Institute of Advanced Journalism, the NCRF, and the Independent Electoral Commission, who train them on how to handle the elections. They are helped in understanding the intricacies of local and national elections, and ensure fair treatment of all political parties.

Democracy is about freedom of expression. CR involves the community in discussions related to issues that affect their livelihood. They inform and educate the communities about their human rights, legal rights, political rights, as well as how government works, for example, local government.

Crime Prevention and Youth Programmes: Some stations have regular programmes on these issues. Members of the police service are invited either to host the programme as volunteers or they come in as guests. All the stations had very innovative ways of involving the community. Two stations went to an extend of inviting former criminals to talk to the community on crime prevention. Univen in partnership with the local police is doing a project on "Youth Against Crime", where the youth are involved in assisting in combating crime.

Democracy: CR has potential for contributing to the processes of democracy and development in South Africa. The government of South Africa, has fortunately, realised that CR is a force to be reckoned with. The Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) is already in the processes of negotiating a strategy for developing a partnership with the CR sector for the dissemination of development information, which is the mission of GCIS. Through this partnership, government can ensure development through participation, thus empowering even the illiterate in having a say in the new democracy.

Other issues: The issues of development are too numerous to address in this paper, however, they are common to many of the areas served by the community radio stations. These issues include and are not limited to, legal, human rights, agriculture, the environment, education, special issues of development, local government, traditional leadership,

The South African Community Radio Directory (2001) shows that most community radio stations list multiple languages of broadcasting. A few, such as Radio Zibonele (Xhosa); Sekhukhune Community Radio (Sepedi) broadcast in one language as indicated. Most of the stations list English and Afrikaans as their official languages, although in many cases they broadcast in an African language for over 60% of their programmes. This is because CR stations apportion the languages of broadcast according to their listeners.

The languages of broadcast across the six stations mentioned, are: Sepedi , Setlokwa, (dialects of Northern Sotho), XiTsonga, TshiVenda, Afrikaans, and English. Mohodi Community Radio Station uses Afrikaans only 7% of the time in their daily programming, because they broadcast to fifteen villages, the majority of which are Northern Sotho speaking. The Afrikaans community is at a little town called Dendon. The decision to broadcast in Afrikaans, although at a small percentage, should not be under-estimated, it should be seen is a uniting factor on the part of the station, because it builds good relations between the Afrikaner farmers and the neighbouring villages.

Community radio further develops African languages, which are now official languages in South Africa. The staff at these stations develop skills in translation because the news often come in English and have to be translated into the different African languages. Finally, through the use of indigenous languages, the community feels closer to the CR station because of its use of a language or dialect that is spoken and understood by the community. Pensioners receive important information such as announcements about dates and venues regarding their payments are done in African languages at al the stations. Other social issues such as, funeral announcements, sports competitions, village meetings, or chiefs addressing the community are also done in the peoples’ languages. They therefore are empowered with information on any topic because the information is in a language they speak.

IMPACT OF CR ON DEVELOPMENT

It is difficult to measure the impact of community radio stations on rural development without proper research undertaken. However, it does not mean that some of the results of the impact are not already visible. CR stations usually undertake regular audience surveys, although it was clear from the case studies, that some were not regular, due to a lack of capacity.

Because radio speaks to the people through its programming, the opinions received by the CR station regarding their programming can also be used to measure impact in the absence of sophisticated research. We are already aware from our case studies, that Univen, a CR station, is competing fiercely for listeners with Phalaphala FM, an SABC station, for listenership. Univen has already lost some of its presenters to Phalaphala FM. What can be deduced here is that the Univen is indeed doing a splendid job in skills development, as well as in reaching the community, if it can compete with a public broadcaster. In fact Univen has grown so much, that it now has its own News Agency. This is a CR station that is indeed developing the community in a positive way.

Local business people are already advertising at CR stations. Businesses, such as grocery shops, phone shops, seamstresses, spaza shops (informal), and others are therefore promoted through advertising. Some taverns and shebeens (local nightclubs and small bars) would invite stations to their events, such as when a tavern is having an event, they would invite the DJ’s from the CR station. Insignificant as this might seem, the local business people are actually receiving lectures in marketing for free from the CR station! Because marketing and advertising bring in more support from the community, these businessmen and women are the ones who would always donate money for events organized by the CR station. Mohodi CR offers free airtime on Saturdays to advertise street vendors. They also feel empowered through this gesture, that heir businesses are recognized.

The broadcasting legislation, through the license conditions of CR stations requires that they re-invest whatever access funds back into the community. Many of the stations are involved in community projects where they use funds generated by the station. CR stations develop the communities through creative projects such as:

1. sourcing out local talent through cultural festivals where the youth compete in areas such as for example, the development of radio drama, dancing, fashion parades, beauty competitions, music competitions

(b) Univen Radio records the music of the community onto CD’s and actually markets it to big companies(c) youth clubs compete during cultural festivals, in drama, dancing

All stations visited were involved in such community projects.

CR is known as "local rural radio" in other countries. This is because of its reinforcement of the cultural identity of the community of broadcast. Some CR stations such as Botlokwa Community Radio, the local dialect Setlokwa is used as a language of broadcast. This is very unusual in a country like South Africa. The stations slogan is "Di fologa Molemole", which means, they are descending from the Molemole mountain, a mountain regarded by the community as sacred, even today. This station is the pride of the Batlokwa people, and one can only imagine that the whole community listens to it. It is regarded as a cultural station because it focuses on the history of the Batlokwa people, their traditions, culture, and current community issues. Through the station the moral and cultural fibre of the youth is developed and strengthened.

Volunteers’ self-esteem is rebuilt through being occupied and doing something for the community. The dignity of the members of the community is restored, because they feel useful, and they discover talents they did not know that they had. Perhaps they even discover a new career, and a new way of life. Success stories abound in the CR stations studied about how former volunteers were snatched by big companies who recognized their talent in broadcasting, marketing, and even management.

CR unites members of the community by restoring pride and dignity to an impoverished community with through involvement in the activities of the station, such as meetings of the board, being a presenter, being a DJ. This is especially good for the youth, as they feel respected by the community, and they feel like they are employed.

Since community radio stations are non-profit making concerns and are registered as such, they are still required to be self-sustaining. According to AMARC –Africa (1998) the station is still expected to generate money for its expenditure, however, if they have excess funds, not "profit", they can then collectively decide with the community what projects they can fund in that community. Bush Radio runs the Bush Day Care Centre and an off-air on-air School AIDS programme with its surplus funds (OSF-SA: 1999). Moletji Progressive Community Radio has started a football tournament, the Bahlaloga Football Association. The station’s surplus funds are used to benefit the tournament. All stations have various projects that they are involved in, in some cases, in partnership with other organisations, or local business people.

Regardless of the problems faced by CR stations, as the next section indicates, there have been significant successes since the inception of community broadcasting in the early nineties as the previous sections have indicated. Their success is probably attributable to the following factors, stated briefly: Affordability

In rural areas television sets are not affordable, therefore community radio is more popular. Radio is a medium, which does not presuppose that people can read, therefore the people would listen to radio because they can understand the language or dialect it broadcasts in.

Presenters at community radio stations are known to the community, they speak the dialect of the community, they have the same cultural values, the same concerns of the community, they know what families they come from, and generally, people can identify with them. The community can identify with the DJ’s playing their local music, and the people therefore take pride of their own station.

People would listen to their community radio station because they feel that they own and control it, through their participation in its activities. They enjoy listening to the station because they can hear their children, grandchildren, themselves, speak or sing on air. They know that they can phone in, and express an opinion in the dialect that they speak, and still be treated with respect. They will not feel illiterate or uneducated!

CR stations are usually located at places accessible to the community, at a shopping centre, a school, a multi-purpose community centre, a tribal authority office, or close to the taxi rank. Members of the community can walk to the station to report lost items, lost children, adults, make announcements about death, upcoming meetings of the school, village, or just to socialise around the radio station while listening outside.

The NCRF describes radio as "an Information and Communication Technology (ICT). And one can safely argue that it is the world’s most successful ICT to date. It is the greatest vehicle for the dissemination of informational content --- apart from the human voice face to face—know to humankind." Currently, the community radio sector in South Africa use the fax, telephone, and the cell phone to support their use of radio.

Many community radio stations have access to computers, which they use to access news via the Internet. These are also used for DTP, networking through electronic mail, and music programs. The NCRF and other support organizations are getting involved in ICT development for this sector, by offering workshops in computer literacy, liaising with ICT funders, and other community ICT projects such as telecentres, in order to build capacity in the use of the newer ICT’s in community broadcasting.

It is through the South African Telecommunications Act of 1996 that the Universal Service Agency was born. Licensees contribute to the Universal Service Fund, which is being used to" take the phone to the village" through the telecentre project. Telecentres are "digital villages" with telephones, faxes, computer with Internet and e-mail facilities, which can be used by communities in the rural areas and townships, in order to provide universal service and access to ICT’s. There is already a grand partnership that has developed between the telecentre projects and community radio stations – they are usually accommodated in the same place. The places have been subsequently named, multi-purpose community centers! (MPCC’s).

CR is a new sector that is growing at an alarming pace. Since the year 200, ICASA has received over 250 applications. The editor of the NCRF Directory of 2001, indicated that even by the time they went to print it was difficult to establish how many CR stations there are in the country, because of problems that they are encountering. There are many CR stations that are licensed that are not yet on air, there are those which due to problems at local level had to go off air, while others are still broadcasting on one-year, one-month, and three-month licences. However, those stations with a certain amount of success should be commended for the good service they are rendering to their communities. These are the stations that prove that the future of CR is bright in South Africa, and perhaps it is time that government looked at ways of supporting them financially, but that is another issue all together. Other challenges facing these stations have to do with the following:

1. Lack of Human Resource capacity: There were stations with computers, but lack of skills to use them to access important news sites. As a result, such stations concentrated on local news, therefore lacking on national and international news. There is a definite need for ICT development in CR stations to improve delivery.
2. The fact that CR stations lose their excellent volunteers, who acquired experience through these stations, is a serious challenge. In some cases it has been difficult to replace whoever left, because there was no succession training, also a serious problem in these stations.
3. Lack of Managerial skills: t is a problem in many of the stations. All stations seem to have problems related to station management, especially, with drawing a line between the powers and functions of the board and that of station management
4. Finance: Some stations are doing well financially, but for others, this is a huge problem. In some cases, it is apparent that there is no innovation in fund-raising possibilities. The lack of funds makes it impossible for these stations to conduct any meaningful research or marketing for the station. Volunteer management is also a problem, due to lack of incentives.

We have seen from the above discussions that CR has the capacity to reach mass populations with low literacy levels. The challenges facing the South African government today, have to do with providing information, education, and communication to the disadvantaged, most of whom, live in impoverished areas, the rural areas. The impact of community radio on rural development should not be under-estimated, especially, when we consider that such communities receive information on a variety of subjects through the kind of innovative and vibrant programming indicated above, in their own languages. No better way to end this chapter than with the words of Michelle Ndiaye Ntab, the Regional Coordinator of AMARC-Africa in a presentation at the "Broadcasting Africa 99" conference about the impact and future of community radio:

"Community radio is on the move! And its dynamism is the reflection of the developments happening in the communication world. In spite of some difficulties the movement is already on its way. Progress is being made here and there, legislation issues are being raised, community issues also. The medium has to focus more for the next century on creating a new citizenship through the Internet. This is for the moment the only inaccessible resource for CR. It may not be the only pillar of democracy and social change, but it is clear that they have an essential role to play, which can be summarized in one simple phrase, inform to educate.

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