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Nduduzo Tshuma Political Editor
ILLEGAL sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States and the European Union continue to haunt the country with one EU country refusing to sell the government equipment to monitor broadcasting networks after digitalisation, a senior government official said yesterday.

Speaking at a development inspection of a broadcasting transmitter site in Hwange, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Cde George Charamba said because of the refusal by that European country to sell Zimbabwe the equipment, the country has had to seek alternative equipment and incurred more costs.

Cde Charamba who revealed that the government has since imported equipment worth more than $3 million through Chinese telecommunications maker Huawei International, said the US intervened in a transaction in US$ raising questions over the money.

The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe and Huawei International signed a $125 million funding deal that goes beyond the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) June 17 digital compliance deadline but includes changing all television studios, having outside broadcasting facilities, digital content production centres, digitalisation of existing analogue radio stations, renewal of FM radio transmission network and having web-based television systems.

The deal with Huawei International was sealed by President Mugabe when he visited China last August where he signed several mega deals that also included the funding of the digitalisation project.

Cde Charamba said: “In fact we’ve equipment made for six sites and if you notice, we’ve about 10 sites along the border which means we only have four down if we’re to comply and we’re moving quite rapidly but in that phase of procurement, we hit two hurdles.

“The one had to do with the payment of monies to Huawei, when we tried to do electronic transfer and the payment was in US$, then the Americans were up in arms, ‘we want to know whose money this is, where it’s going and what the purpose of that transaction is,’” said Cde Charamba.

“Fortunately for us, we made information available and that money came. You could see how long the American hand is in global financial affairs. We gave them that information and luckily they allowed us to proceed with the transaction.

“But already they had given us notice of a potential area of complication in view of the sanctions that we’re labouring under. Anyone who tells you that there are no sanctions let them come and join us in the ministry then we demonstrate to them how sanctions are in fact real in this country.”

The second problem, Cde Charamba said, “was when we wanted a certain piece of equipment which allows us to monitor the whole network. It was supposed to come from some European country and for some strange reason they decided Zimbabwe was under sanctions and therefore that equipment wouldn’t be made available to Zimbabwe.

“So we’re having to look for another supplier simply because of sanctions and when that happens, quite a number of things are forfeited. You’re dealing with labels which are known globally and when that label can’t be made available to you, it means you’re being pushed to lower levels. We’re having to make do with alternative technology on that matter, fortunately there is that alternative. Secondly, it means your procurement geography extends beyond what you had planned with and that means you then have to incur more costs.

“You know we do something called pre-shipment inspection. I must go and see what’s being shipped to Zimbabwe before the shipment starts. That means we dispatch engineers to go and check on that equipment so essentially, when the issue of sanctions comes into play, it means we’ve to reorganise ourselves logistically and that’s a cost to us. That’s what’s happening, sanctions are real, get it from me,” said Cde Charamba.

Clarifying the implications of the ITU June 17 digitalisation deadline, Cde Charamba said the cut off time did not necessarily stipulate that the entire country migrates from analogue to digital.

“June 17 is that date which ITU has set globally to ensure that all broadcast systems must harmonise which means if you’re running a broadcast system in Zimbabwe, you must do it in such a way that it doesn’t interfere with the broadcast activities of your neighbour.

“That essentially means that we must ensure that all our border areas aren’t equipped in such a way that they begin to interfere with systems of our neighbours,” said Cde Charamba.

“That might mean one, if those sites aren’t compliant which means they’re not yet digital, we simply decommission them. If it’s not working then it can’t interfere with your neighbours or which is the preferred option, we upgrade those border sites to ensure that they’re in harmony with our neighbours in which case we’ve combined compliance and development. The ITU deadline, is to ensure compliance, it can be by switching off or by upgrading.”

Cde Charamba said digitalisation is also a developmental project for the whole country.

“It can’t be an ITU instruction although ITU may encourage us to go digital. Digitalisation is now about the way we go, the resources that the country has or can muster, that resource will then enable that country to then move away from analogue to digital and it costs lots of money. In our case we’ve estimated the amount to be about $125 million,” he said.

“That’s huge money so really ITU can’t say Zimbabwe must get 125 million, no, it will encourage us to do so but what ITU is saying is that by June 17, make sure that all your border areas aren’t interfering with your neighbours.

“This is the second phase which is developmental where we’re targeting upgrades of systems to a more efficient technology and then secondly universal access to make sure that every Zimbabwean, whether you’re in the border areas or you’re in the city centres are in receipt of a broadcast signal because that way we create what’s termed a virtual nation on the screen.”

Cde Charamba said the country was working on tight timelines to meet the ITU deadlines on transmitters on the border areas but said on June 17 the country should be compliant on all the sites along the border.

“Inside the country, generally Huawei has given us the impression that by mid 2016, we should be able to be there. That’s basically how we’re going,” he said.

Cde Charamba said the country, had decided to make sure that the back bone of its broadcasting services is terrestrial for strategic, security and efficiency reasons.

“This means that it must be earth-bound and that means it must run on fibre optic lines whilst using satellite as a back-up but when it comes to actual roll out, we’ll start off on satellite because we’ll still be developing other sites by way of the roll out of fibre optic.

“When we commission this whole project which is nationwide, we’ll start doing so through satellite technology as our distribution point and then migrate within a migration to go back to fibre optic. “

Cde Charamba said the country and the rest of Africa did not have satellites and it was not safe for a country to commission its entire communication infrastructure in the hands of outsiders.

He said the country had decided to create upmarket content hubs in Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls to feed productions to a possible 42 stations after digitalisation.

He said there would also be satellite hubs in all provincial capitals to ensure that, “the screen becomes an expression of the sum total of our national sub cultures.”

Cde Charamba said after digitalisation, the model of licence collection would change from the phenomenon of licence inspectors in human form.

“We should be able to disable you from the broadcast centre if you haven’t paid. The basic rule in public finance is that the cost of collecting taxes mustn’t be higher than the value of the tax collected. This is exactly what ZBC was suffering from, they were spending $20 to collect $2,” he said.