A blackout that lasted close to 45 minutes yesterday spoiled Minister of Information, Nicholas Dausi’s familiarisation tour of Voice of Livingstonia (VOL) Radio and Regional Information Offices in the Northern Region.
Dausi endured the moment when power went out while he was live on air as guest in one of the radio station’s feedback programmes ‘Wanambumba.’
The station’s power generator failed to automatically start up.
After the blackout, a downcast Dausi made his way out of the studio and proceeded to other sections and offices.
Board Chairperson for the station, Jacob Nkhambule, admitted that power outages have become problematic to the broadcast industry and are resulting in unplanned expenses.
“This a great challenge considering the cost associated with it. We have a standby generator that powers all the machines within the radio station but then, the generator uses diesel which has a very high cost and that has a bearing on the operational budget.
“Money which could have been used for the procurement of other necessary equipment is diverted to procure diesel,” Nkhambule said.
In reaction, Dausi admitted electricity outages are badly affecting the country’s industries.
“We will make sure that such things are addressed but I must say that a solution will not be found in a day,” Dausi said.
At the Regional Information Offices, staff raised concerns over inadequate funding, lack of promotions and aging equipment.
“Funding for the region and the ministry is inadequate to meet our requirements and this is resulting in numerous challenges. We also do not have reliable transport in the region. We only have one vehicle and mostly borrow from other government departments every time it [the vehicle] develops a fault.
“The equipment that we have was brought in 2009 and is aging due to over working. We ask that you intervene in that area,” Frank Mkondetseni, Regional Information Officer said.
Leave a Reply