MN.11.04.1996 - Profile of Channel Africa

This week most of the programme focussed on a profile of the new South African external service, Channel Africa. Lebona Mosia was its first director and he visited Hilversum in April 1996 to discuss possible cooperation. He had worked as a broadcaster on the anti-apartheid clandestine station Radio Freedom which beamed programmes into the country from neighbouring Zambia and Madagascar. Following the change of government, Radio RSA was renamed Channel Africa and went through a major period of change, having much less money than before. The programme also includes an interview with the then boss of Sentech, Neil Smuts, who explained that the Meyerton shortwave centre was being prepared for jamming operations when the regime collapsed.