China makes TV/radio grant to tiny Lesotho | English

China makes TV/radio grant to tiny Lesotho

2005-8-15 20:41:46
Ntsau Lekhetho

China will help finance a 100 million rand ($15 million) project to boost television and radio in the tiny kingdom of Lesotho, which has one of the patchiest communication systems in Africa, a minister said on Thursday.

Under the project, due to start in January, China will give 30 million rand ($4.5 million) worth of equipment and technical assistance in installing transmitters, towers, antennae and generators to keep the system running, the kingdom's Minister of Broadcasting Tom Thabane told state-owned Radio Lesotho.

China has raised its profile in a number of African countries in recent years, investing heavily in some like oil producing Angola. This week Beijing signed an economic cooperation deal with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is under fire from the United Nations over human rights abuses. "Upon completion of the project, it is expected that signals will cover western populous areas while most of the mountainous areas will be covered by the signals received via satellite," Thabane said.

Lesotho, a mountainous country entirely surrounded by South Africa, will also contribute to the project, officials said.

Access to electricity and electricity consumption in Lesotho are the lowest of any country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, a big impediment to communications and broadcasting coverage in rural areas.

The state-run Lesotho Television channel broadcasts local content for only two hours in the evenings between 7 pm and 9 pm. Apart from government-owned Radio Lesotho, there are six privately owned radio stations which broadcast mainly in the capital city Maseru.

The project will enable Lesotho to rent bandwidth on existing satellite networks for both television and FM radio broadcasts, as well as improving power infrastructure.

"Part of the project will be to install power lines and use generators where it will be impossible to connect the electricity infrastructure," Thabane said.

Most FM radio and TV transmitter sites in Lesotho are built on top of mountains that are largely inaccessible by road, making helicopters necessary for maintenance purposes, Broadcasting Principal Secretary Ts'eliso 'Mokela told Reuters.

"The coverage will be increased such that Lesotho may even rent out (capacity) to neighbouring countries and its broadcasting by satellite will have far reaching influence in surrounding countries."

A long-term partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) allows the broadcast the big neighbour's radio and television to Lesotho homes.

Multichoice, the pay-TV subsidiary of South African media firm Naspers <NPNJn.J> also has a significant subscriber base with Direct Service pay-TV (DSTV) in the poor country.

origin：Reuters

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