BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
By Bulali Dyakopu and Tapfuma Mugari
For our Engaging Spaces project, we chose to work with Radio Grahamstown. We were excited by the project, because this station has been around about as long as the South African community radio movement itself. It was founded in the early 1990's, and since then has consistently given voice to the perspectives and experiences of the people of Grahamstown. Today, the station has a vibrant news team that delivers local and international content to its audience on a daily basis, under the dynamic leadership of the news manager, Xolani Kondile. We were given the opportunity to work with Xolani, to help him to establish a new current affairs slot on Masabelane, on the Monday and Friday edition of their daily morning talk-back programme. We set out to capture this experience.
By March, we were full members of Xolani's new current affairs news team. The very first topic that we tackled was that of vandalism. Xolani pointed out to us that destruction of public property is on the rise in Grahamstown. An area of particular concern is Benjamin Mahlasela High School, which is quickly becoming a site of devastation. We produced a two-part series about the school. Read more...
When we broadcast the first show on vandalism, our audience responded with interest and concern. As a result we received some important leads for a follow-up show. Some community members in Extension 6 suggested that we should talk to local owners of scrap businesses. It was alleged that they buy copper wires and window frames from thieves. Xolani also informed us that Education Department had plans for the Amasango Career Centre to move into Mahlasela. We set out to find out more.
Originally, we had planned to carry on with our focus on Benjamin Mahlasela School for our third show. In the end, however, we ended up attending to a more pressing news with the official opening of the Joza Police Station. We did stay with the question of vandalism though, because we had the opportrunity to ask the Minister of Police some questions about this. Read more...
In late April, we attended a press conference at which Thandy Matebese, Makana's municipal spokesperson, announced that the bucket system was finally being phased out in Grahamstown. The occasion was also used to hand over some RDP houses to local residents. Matebese explained that the original deadline for eradicating the bucket system had been in December 2007. But the municipality ran to problems when they discovered human remains in sites where the new infrastructure was to be installed. Read more...
In February, when we first joined the Radio Grahamstown news team, we sat down to talk to Xolani. As he spoke, we began to feel really excited about the prospect of working on his news team. Read more...
Listen to the first episode of our series on Benjamin Mahlasela.
Listen to the second episode of our series on Benjamin Mahlasela.
This is the episode in which we cover the opening of the police station
This is the episode in which we cover Matebese's press conference