Social Media Reacts To Kwese Licence Saga

Econet Media this year launched a satellite network, Kwese TV, in Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia, skipping Zimbabwe, but this weekend “they announced” that they had sealed a partnership with DR Dish.

Yesterday, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) shook the Zimbabwe night when they advised the public that the authority had not issued a licence to Kwese TV to operate in Zimbabwe. In a statement, BAZ CEO, Mr Obert Muganyura said in terms of the Broadcasting Services Act [chapter 12:06], no person shall provide a broadcasting service in Zimbabwe other than in accordance with a licence issued by BAZ. With an announcement of this magnitude, there’s been plenty of interesting reaction on social media from Zimbabweans local and abroad, reporters and countless others.

In February, Masiyiwa disclosed on Facebook that he wanted Zimbabwe to be part of the project that would create thousands of jobs, but failed to get approval from the government. This is not the first time, Econet has had licence issue with the Government.In 1993, Strive Masiyiwa took the Zimbabwean government to court in a gruelling five-year legal battle, and Econet has since grown into the government’s cash cow.

Late last year, Kwese TV signed a deal with ZBC to screen its football content, but this was cancelled after only one week. Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary, George Charamba, said “There was an attempt to smuggle Kwese TV programmes onto our screens and we said get it out of our screens,”

This deal could have seen ZBC getting up to six hours of content from the Olympics, which ended last month, and one live English Premier League match would have been aired every Saturday on ZBC TV for free.

Here’s a look at some of the best reactions to the Kwese licence deal: