The idea

A

In high school we were asked to come up with a business idea that would be profitable, essential to community development and most of all an idea which would be creating jobs around the community. At the age of seventeen I knew what I wanted to do I just didn’t know how I could do it as I grew up the need for my idea grew and my idea was starting to take shape, my name is Sibabalo Victor Mashiyi and I’ve got an idea that will keep growing and growing because I took my time with the research.

In 2003 a little girl went missing In Masiphumelele just after 4pm and a small search was done while the rest of us had no idea what was going on we just saw people in a mob. Sometime after 6pm somebody decided to go and hire a megaphone to tell everybody what was really going on Two hours later needless to say the child was found by a helicopter dead and raped in the bushes

Stats SA was here for the second time that I’ve noticed and they posted jobs for field workers and co-coordinators, in the last week when they were getting ready to do the training they were still looking for people because most people who qualified didn’t know about the posts In cases like this you mite end up finding spaces for unfair recruitment, bribes and other corrupt employment practices because of the lack of transparency.

In 2008 a man by the name of noRhutshu came to Masiphumelele promising people that he was going to build low cost housing for them but before he does that he needs people to give him R20 for each application and they need to give him their ID copies and their title deeds which meant he had signing power and could go and claim from the housing dept. because he was registered and had all the relevant paper work … the housing dept. gave him more than R27 000 on each claim they approved and he spent about R9 000 on the building and labor and the what he ended up doing was building 3 little 1 room shack like houses with a toilet smaller than the ones they had to break down and all of this happened because the people had no idea how much the dept. of housing was paying out when they found out, the guy was nowhere to be found and the dept. wasn’t doing double payments .

People may not always realize the importance of information when it’s always available or when they don’t need it but when then need it and it’s not there they will always say “if only we knew” by this time it’s too late. The examples I listed are not the only cracks that showed up because of a lack of information, The Xenophobic attacks that happened here were also put of this problem I don’t even want mention the spread of HIV/AIDS BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF INFORMATION          

The Idea itself is simple enough to understand but the details in it are far more complex as you will get to see as you go further into this plan … For it to make sense to you, you should think of it as a twin engine the first one would be the communication of relevant happenings in and around us without losing our community  objectives the second would be to create a market for Local entertainment by showing people that there is talent around them … The Idea of a radio station that speaks to us as people of this Valley about things we would understand living here, a place where you can find help       If they have big dreams, Masi Radio is the perfect place for people to learn the industry before they go out into the big world of entertainment and journalism, with 7 permanent staff members and three agents to start off with it should be a bumpy ride trying to organize everything but once we get on track it will be easy to reach the target market because of the lack of Competition and the originality of the idea

B

The plan has been running since 2004 with Founding of African House Movement, the plan has always been to record local talent and help them get distribution in whatever genre they choose we have never charged for our services because we have been through the same things they would go through if we don’t show them what we learned about this industry so far. Artists being very much people who start out unsure of their talents, one little swing in the wrong direction usually has bad results ,we try to get to them while they are having doubts and we show them the right way to approach things because there are standards set, if you don’t measure up you won’t even get a response. We have been giving people a chance to make a good impression since 2004, if we could produce music the way we have been doing for the last few years and bring everybody along for the “ride” by tuning them in to our new products as they are being made that would be good radio and they would call in and give feedback … I can’t imagine a better boost for any artist than getting immediate response for you product … On top of everything African House Movement received two distribution contracts this year from online distributors which creates a platform for them to sell their music globally, one of the best suggestions we’ve received was to have an on-line stream as well and we got them we want open as many channels as possible so that nobody goes through everything we went through

The research showed us that the idea was very much welcomed in the south and businesses showed a high interest in the idea when it was presented so much we had a man who wanted to install our equipment and is offering his services free because he loved the idea. In the community they told us they would even give us the community hall for free for the launch of the station one man even offered to buy 200 radios to give away on the launch so people can’t say they can’t get us one guy said we should get radios which only played our signal but I thought that was funny …

We are constantly being told that everything we are doing is impossible we just end up proving that when you don’t have money, you just have time and these days work is hard to come by you could always use your God given talents with you mind and make a living and I would be glad if we could pass that idea to all those who feel like their life is hopeless even if it’s just to say you can do it too without having to say it but living it … I won’t lie I make R150 no, 140 a week that is like $15 a week and I have a two year old daughter and her mom to look after and upload music … It’s just hard to find work these days because if you say you are South African you just don’t stand a chance so much that in the news papers the new heading in the classified is “Malawian” and I know everybody will say I’m stirring up things but I’m not I’m just saying it’s hard and if we don’t adapt we will beg in the streets in the millions by the look of things right now we mite end up being part of the wildlife, I can imagine it now … the tourists would come over on some bus and the guide would be showing them around “yes dis oney isy the zebra, dat oney dhe liony andi dat oney is the Xhoisa almost extinctshoni…”       

The success of African House Movement so far has been due to hard work and working hard has attracted the attention of heavy hitters in the industry and some of the best coaching on approach and quality was offered to us, we know what we are doing but we love learning new things they keeps us moving Masi Radio is just a way we would like to invest in the future of this community (save the young while preserving the ideas of the aged)