The young people of Mpumalanga are the masters of their own destiny.
The launch of the first online television by a group of young people in Mbombela is set to change the face of community media in this small province. While South Africa is regarded as a media-savvy nation, online television hasn’t really taken off at a speed one would have expected, writes Nthambeleni Gabara.
The traditional media in South Africa is still dominated by a handful of conglomerates whose influence stretches from newspapers to magazines and pay television. The arrival of MiTV, which stands for Mpumalanga Internet Television, is therefore good news not only for Mpumalanga but other provinces where young people may want to venture into this untapped market. Already, the trend in South Africa is towards online media with millions of people preferring to get their news and current affairs online instead of the traditional print media.
True to the ethos of development journalism, MiTV promotes all forms of art, culture, heritage and social entertainment.
According to CEO, Clifford Mei, since the first clips went online in March this year, the station attracted over two million views.
The online TV is distributed across the web via Yahoo, Facebook, twitter and YouTube.
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, who visited the station recently, said government was doing a lot to change the lives of the youth through the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) which has supported the MiTV initiative.
“The majority of young people in this province have been transformed into absolute entrepreneurs, who are running successful companies, but the challenge is that there is nobody telling the nation these good stories,” she said.
“The era of our people attracting negative publicity should be over now, our people want to read their own success stories and as government, we are committed to make this a reality through reinforcing our good working relationship with both community and mainstream media,” she said.
Minister Muthambi mentioned the owners of MiTV and other young entrepreneurs in Mpumalanga who have been assisted by the NYDA to realise their dreams of starting businesses.
Some of these youngsters include Likazi, Collen Zwane of Mnandi Global Cleaning who provide detergents and cleaning services to the community and businesses in Mbombela.
The cleaning company, grew gradually after receiving funding from the NYDA to purchase stock. Another young person, Franklin Sias, has been running a pest control company three years ago with the view of improving his socio-economic status and that of unemployment and illiterate young people in Mbombela.
He now employs three young people.
Jephrey Mathungana of Makoroni Holdings Enterprises received R8 300 from the NYDA to grow his business which focuses on building materials.
“I am still operating from home, but since the business is responding positively, I’m busy preparing a new place where I will be operating with the two people that I’ve employed,” Mathungana said. -SAnews.gov.za
