Botswana to ignore Mugabe over VOA

By Never Kadungure

The Coordinator of the Botswana Government Communications and Information Services (BGCIS) Dr Jeff Ramsey said on Friday that his country would ignore Mugabe regime complaints over the hosting of so-called pirate radio stations like VOA’s Studio 7.

Dr Ramsey was responding to rabid complaints coming from Zimbabwean state media newspaper The Herald. The paper claimed the Zimbabwean government will make a formal complaint over Botswana hosting a relay transmitter used by Voice of America.

Ironically the Mugabe regime is claiming VOA is beaming hate messages into the country when the state papers like the Herald and Chronicle newspapers have been at the forefront of hate messages against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party.

But Dr Ramsey said there was nothing illegal in Botswana hosting the broadcasts. He said that VOA does its broadcasting from Washington in the United States and Botswana is only hosting its relay station in Selebi-Phikwe.

Additionally there are many European, American, French, and Chinese Short Wave and Medium Wave radio stations with relays in Africa.

“For instance, South Africa is hosting a relay for BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation),” he said. The VOA has had a relay station in Botswana since the early 1970s but Zimbabwe started complaining about it in 2003.