25th September 2017: South Africa’s Minister of Communication Hon. Ayanda Dlodlo has urged broadcasters in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to produce more local stories that promote the cultural identity and heritage of the Member States in the region.
The minister was speaking during the annual Broadcasting Forum jointly organized by SADC and the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA) taking place from 25-29 September, 2017, at the Gateway Conference Centre in Windhoek, Namibia.
Minister Dlodlo stressed that the sourcing of local content should not be left in hands of broadcasters only but should be a responsibility of every stakeholder, including both government as well as the private sector.
Close to 200 leaders in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and broadcasting took part in the forum whose theme is 'Strategies for Stimulating Local Content Production and Creating an Enabling Environment for Sustainable Telling of Africa's Story.'
The permanent secretary in the Namibian Ministry of ICT, Hon. Mbeuta Ua-Ndjarakana urged the forum to come up with strategies to promote the creation of local content and how governments and other stakeholders can get involved in supporting creation of local broadcast content.
Mr. Stanley Similo, the director-general of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, said Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasting has put financial burden on the broadcasters, making it difficult to achieve universal coverage.
Similo, who is also president of SABA, urged governments in the region to re-look at the funding strategies and models towards access to information and to make sure that broadcasters deliver services that are affordable and that marginalised communities are also connected.
Speaking on behalf of the SADC Secretariat, Ms Cecilia Mamelodi-Onyadile, the Senior programme officer for Communications and ICTexpressed hope that the forum will formulate institutional mechanisms to address the stimulation of local content creation.
