LETTER SENT TO MINISTER YUNUS CARRIM AFTER HOLDING TALKS WITH HIM ON SATURDAY, JAN 18 2014

SOUTHSIDE FM RADIO Mr Yunus Carrim Minister of Communications Pretoria Dear Minister Carrim We, the officials of Southside FM Radio, want to thank you very sincerely for agreeing to meet us today (Jan 18 2014) at the Coastlands Hotel in Umhlanga to discuss the resolution of our urgent need for a frequency that has been dragging on for five years. We understand that you are a very busy Minister and we want to say how grateful we are that you had set aside some of your precious time to meet us. We appreciate your inputs and eagerly await your letter you said you would send on January 27 2014. We had decided to take up the issue directly with you because we believe that there needs to be urgent intervention to assist us in our long and arduous struggle to launch our radio station. As requested by you, we wish to state that we were FIRST offered the FM frequency, 93.6, in January 2011 by ICASA but this was subsequently obstructed by Sentech, who claimed that this frequency would cause interference to other radio stations. Then after meeting with Mr Monde Mbanga, Manager: Broadcasting Spectrum Engineering and Technology, of ICASA and another official in Johannesburg on June 21 2012, we were asked to supply ICASA with the co-ordinates of the four premises where we would broadcast from in Durban. We supplied the co-ordinates of the premises in Mount Edgecombe, Merebank, Chatsworth and Briardene on July 6 2012 but to date we have heard nothing about the frequency being granted to broadcast from any one of these premises. Then after the meetings initiated by Mr Eric Kholwane, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Communications, we received the following letter from Mr Mbanga on May 27 2013: "On 5/27/13, Monde Mbanga wrote: Dear Subry, As highlighted in my previous email, there is good progress on this matter. The following has been achieved thus far: 1. Sentech has submitted a proposed solution 2. ICASA confirmed the solution's feasibility and viability 3. Now ,Sentech is engaging SABC on the Logistics of the testing and implementation of the proposed solution 4. I'll advise you of the development after my second meeting with Sentech where the implementation and the timelines of this solution for Southside FM will be finalised. 5. Your patience will be highly appreciated 6. Please refrain from including chairperson's in our operational discussions, there is enough progress and no constraints that require their intervention at this stage. Regards Monde Mbanga" But despite all the assurances from all sides, we were forced to take up the matter directly with you in late 2013. In our letter on September 17 2013 to you, we gave you a detailed account of our struggles and expressed the view that we cannot understand why, we as a progressive cultural radio station, are being frustrated in our efforts. We are fully committed to the ideals and values of our new nonracial and democratic South Africa and want to play a full role in this regard via our radio station. Since submitting the letter to you, we have received a very positive response from you and you directed us to negotiate with senior officials in your department. In this regard, we have been in constant touch with your Chief of Staff, Ms Siphokazi Shoba. Ms Shoba has been very helpful and on October 23 2013, she relayed to us the steps that were being taken to help us with our frequency. She passed on to us a letter that was sent to her. This is what the letter stated: "Dear Mr Govender Below please see below report from ICASA. I will check with my colleague Jabu Radebe w.r.t the turnaround time of the process mentioned in the below e-mail. Sincerely, Siphokazi ................................................................................. On 2013/10/23 5:13 PM, "Philemon Molefe" wrote: Colleagues, There was a meeting held at SABC on Monday to resolve the issue. The meeting was with the Acting COO of SABC, Sentech, DoC and ICASA. The meeting was held at the request of the PPCC Chairperson. The purpose of the meeting was for SABC to give Sentech a go ahead with the testing of the feasibility of releasing a frequency in Durban for use by Southside FM. Summary of outcome of the meeting is as follows: 1. SABC has agreed to allow Sentech to conduct the Tests as initially agreed at the meeting in Durban. 2. SABC to apply to ICASA by end of this week for a temporary trial spectrum Licence so as to allow Sentech to commence with the tests. 3. ICASA to process the SABC application upon receipt thereof and ultimately issue a Licence. 4. Sentech to commence the tests once temporary Licence has been issued to SABC. 5. SABC recommended Lynn Mansfield to be part of the tests. 6. The steps that follow thereafter will be as per the meeting held in Durban between SABC, Sentech, ICASA, DoC , Southside FM and PPCC chairperson. Siphokazi, DoC was represented by Jabu in the meeting held on Monday. For any further information, I believe he can fill any gaps or provide info that I might have left out. The process is currently at step 2 above. [SABC still to apply for temp trial licence]. However, there is progress in the sense that they have agreed to take the process forward]. Hope you find the above helpful. Kind regards Sent from my iPad ............................................................................ On 23 Oct 2013, at 12:52 PM, "Unathi Bangani" UBangani@icasa.org.za wrote: Dear Sipho, As far as I understand, negotiations are still underway to assist them. The matter is very complex but from the email below it does not seem like ICASA is the stumbling block here. I have copied my colleague, Phil Molefe who has been dealing with the issue at hand so that he can advise from our side what is the status update. Regards, Unathi" After we received this letter, we continued to maintain constant contact with Ms Shoba about the latest developments and progress, if any. We were to have met you on December 10 last year but due to the demise of our beloved Madiba, we were unable to do so. You had postponed all your arrangements until mid-January this year. In the meanwhile, we contacted the regional manager of Sentech in Durban and wanted to know whether he had conducted the field tests for the frequency. On January 17, he sent me the following letter: "Good morning Subry; Compliments of the new season to you and your family; You can recall that on the 26th of April 2013 we had a meeting at Elangeni hotel in Durban where this issue was discussed. During that meeting Sentech agreed to conduct desktop analysis on the feasibility of increasing the transmitter power of R2000 at Alverstone from 3000W to 5000W; the idea was to increase the power so that those areas that are receiving R2000 from Bluff transmitter could get an alternative signal from Alverstone if the Bluff frequency is switched off or allocated to Southside FM. Secondly it was resolved that if the desktop analysis become successful then ICASA and SABC will allow Sentech to do the field test by switching off Bluff transmitter for a period of a week or two. Sentech completed the desktop successfully as this was communicated to you and the team. I have not been personally involved in subsequent meetings so it will be unfair for me to state what happened there after. I can say that SABC, ICASA and Sentech must agree on the way forward before we at Operations do anything; we get instruction from Head office. I would like to suggest that you take this matter to those who have powers to make a final decision on the matter. Good luck and kind regards; Patrick " Mr Minister we have put in a lot of work over the past five years in order to get our progressive radio station off the ground. We have been made to believe since the beginning by ICASA and Sentech that there were no problems in granting us a frequency. We cannot understand why - in this day and age of modern technology - that we are being frustrated. The new non-racial and democratic South Africa has made provision for almost all cultural groups to be catered for in so far as radio stations are concerned - but we - who make up an important part of South Africa's population - are being frustrated in our attempts. We want to play not only a progressive role in the new South Africa but we also want play a developmental role in promoting the ideals, values, and principles for which leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Dr Monty Naicker and Dr Yusuf Dadoo had sacrificed and died for. When we launch we would have on our programme the teaching of isiZulu to our target market so that social cohesion - which is an important part of our new South Africa - is taken seriously. We have reached a stage where we have put on hold the construction of our studio and recruitment of our staff members until we are granted our frequency. What we are experiencing is very painful and causing frustration among members of our target market. We cannot allow this state of affairs in our new non-racial and democratic South Africa. Thanking you Subry Govender Secretary -------------------- Board of Governors: Mr Balan Gounder (chairperson), Mr Swaminathan Gounden, Mr Logan Naidoo, Ms Sally Padaychie, Ms Keresha Govender, Ms T P S Govender, Mr Richard Naidoo (deputy chairperson) and Mr Denis Naidoo Committee Members: Mr Sumeshen Moodley, Mr Richard Govender, Mr Ugen Nadasen, Mr S. Trinishen and Mr Deven Moodley