The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has taken a local community radio station off air, after it had allegedly been operating without the requisite service and frequency spectrum licences since 2009.
According to ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka, Magareng FM, in the Northern Cape, applied for a Community Sound Broadcasting Service licence in October 2008 to provide a broadcasting service within the Magareng Municipality.
"Magareng FM's application was considered and processed, and subsequently granted - but they were never issued with the physical licence, as ICASA had attached certain pre-licensing conditions to the grant, which they never complied with." One of the conditions, he says, was the registration certificate as a non-profit entity.
He says, although the station was informed about the authority's decision on 25 March 2009, it proceeded to broadcast - "despite the instruction to desist from the act". This action, says the regulator, is in direct contravention of the Electronic Communications Act and the ICASA Act.
Prior to the eventual closure of Magareng FM, ICASA says it paid the station a visit, during which it was discovered that Magareng FM is providing an illegal broadcasting services on 90.7MHz to the community in Warrenton.
"The authority has, therefore, confiscated the broadcasting equipment used by the station to provide an illegal broadcasting service."
Attempts to get comment from Magareng FM proved fruitless as the station appears to have no online presence, and the telephone number associated with the station is inoperable.
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