A radio station opposed to Zimbabwe’s government has shut down after 13 years of broadcasting from the UK.
“Donor fatigue” had led to funding for SW Radio Africa drying up, its manager Gerry Jackson told the BBC.
The station was launched when President Robert Mugabe faced strong
opposition to his rule from the Movement for Democratic Change party.
After four years in coalition with the MDC, Mugabe fended off his rivals and was re-elected to office last year.
Jackson said the long crisis in Zimbabwe, and the “massive disarray”
in the ranks of the MDC, had contributed to “donor fatigue”.
The European Union had also decided to “re-engage with Mugabe and the
ruling Zanu-PF party, which may have influenced some donors who do not
want a critical voice out there”, she added.
BBC Africa editor Richard Hamilton says SW Radio Africa’s final news
bulletin, from an office outside London, was tinged with sadness.
Although the Zimbabwean government jammed some of its short wave
broadcasts, SW Radio Africa still had its loyal listeners – estimated at
one point at around one million, he says.
“We are gone so our voice is completely gone,” Ms Jackson told the BBC
