Radio Zibonele was established in 1993 in Khayelitsha Cape Town, as a home made radio station. It was set up under the bed in an old shipping container truck. The container truck served as a clinic for the Zibonele community Health Centre. It provided an illegal broadcast then which reached the community of Griffis Mxenge in Khayelitsha.
During that time Khayelitsha was experiencing political violence and unrest. It was very difficult for health workers to perform their daily home visits. The possibility of reaching the community through radio was an appropriate alternative. Radio was the medium of choice, because of the high rate of illiteracy and because most people had access to radio. The radio was established to assist the Community Health Workers (CHW) and also serve the broader community of Khayelitsha.
Radio Zibonele 98.2 FM has got a very unique market in the province of the Western Cape. We are the only Community Radio station that speaks Isixhosa 24-7 in the Province; it then leaves us with no competition at all. Because of the level of education within these areas of our broadcast, people tune in to our Radio Station as it is one of their powerful sources of information that uses the languages they understand. We structure our programmes to suit and appeal directly to this wonderful audience. Our programmes range from Current affairs, Women issues, Magazine programmes, News, Music, Community Issues, etc. For the past decade, Radio Zibonele 98.2 FM has shown a huge growth as it comes at number two in the province and number four in the country. As a trusted medium of learning, Radio Zibonele Community broadcast engages and enriches the community through distinctive programming.
