Hardly a month after it went on air, the future of the newly established community radio station, Makhado FM, is being threatened by a power struggle between the leaders.

The struggle is between Junior Ramovha, the station’s suspended chief executive officer, and the station’s manager, Moses Muneri.

Ramovha was allegedly suspended from his position ten months ago, following allegations that he wanted the station to buy him a new car and pay the monthly instalments of his Almera.

On Saturday Ramovha and three other people, who were part of the management before the suspension, visited the station apparently with the intention of taking over the “sinking ship under Muneri who knows nothing about radio.”

On their arrival, Ramovha, together with Themba Hlangwane (who was the sales manager), Lily Mpilo (news editor) and Kedebone Makwarela, who was the chief op-erational officer, was refused entry into the station by Muneri and the program manager, Edwin Ramulifho. Muneri apparently became aware of the visit by the four pro-testers, following a text message that was sent to his mobile phone as well as to some of the local journalists.

Muneri allegedly told the “unwelcome visitors” that he could not let them inside the studio as he had been advised not to do so by the police. The visitors, who claimed that they had the right to get into the studio as founders of the community radio station, then told Muneri to let them speak with the said police officers, so that the officers could explain their reason for refusing them men entry. It later turned out that the police were not the ones who were re-fusing the visitors entry, but the lawyers.

After some argu-ments, the police were called to the scene, where each of the parties tried to give their side of the story. The police members present then went into the station and had a meeting with Muneri for about 30 minutes, trying to find out exactly what the problem was. After the meeting, the police members recommended that the two parties resolve their differences amicably.

After the police left, Ramovha and his team also left, allegedly informing Muneri that “we will not rest until we win this battle.”

It is alleged that on Sunday, Ramovha called Khakhathi Tshisikule and Dakalo Muvhali to ask for their support as payback to him for roping them in to be part of the station before he was sus-pended.

Tshisikule, of Khakhathi & Friends fame, presents a reggae program from 12:00 to 15:00 every Sunday, while Muvhali presents Sizzling Drive (After-noon Drive) from 15:00 to 18:00 from Monday to Friday.

Tshisikule confirmed that Ramovha had called him a few minutes after his show ended. “Ramovha told me that I should support him as he was the one who brought me to the station. He even said that I must know that if I do not support him I am go-ing to face the chop when he comes back,” says Tshisikule.

Tshisikule, who is known for expressing his opinion in his songs, without taking sides, says “Mr Ramovha called me and asked if I knew about his intentions to invade the station, of which I said yes. I told Junior (Ramovha) that I appreciated the fact that he had brought me to the station and I also admired his brain, especially in the running of the radio station, but I could not help him to fight his battles as I am too small a player for management politics,” says Tshisikule.

Muvhali, who worked for Vaal University of Technology’s radio sta-tion from 2003 until 2006, also confirmed that he had received a call from Ramovha.

“Yes, it is true that Ramovha called me after speaking to Tshisikule. Personally, I wish the two can work together for the sake of progress here, because if they continue fighting, it might affect us. As for myself, I want to con-centrate on building my career and forget about the management’s fight as it is above us,” says Muvhali, one of the best DJs found at Makhado FM.

Meanwhile, Ramovha confirmed that he had visited the station with Kedibone, Themba and Lilly. He also confirmed that he had called Tshisikule and Muvhali, while adding that “my call was just on a friendly basis.”

“I know how to fight my own battles and if I wanted assistance from someone, I would have done that long ago,” he said.

About the visit to the station, Ramovha says: “We went there with the intention of engaging in talks with Muneri and Ramulifho to see what is best for the benefit of the community, not for per-sonal benefit, but we did not succeed.

“These people used baseless allegations to suspend me and I waited for 10 months to see if they can come up with supporting evidence of what they were accusing me of, but this never happened. I think these people thought that I was gone and forgotten. Unfortunately, I am not the type of person who is going to give up on this issue as I worked very hard to take the station to where it is to-day,” he said.

Ramovha said that from now on they were going to devise a new strategy. “I am not going to sit back and relax as this is my project that I started from scratch and in which I invested a lot of time and resources. I also know how to solve all the problems that are facing the station. Come June 1, I will be running the station,” says Ramovha.

Many attempts to get comment from Muneri proved fruitless as he did not answer his mobile phone for a number of days. During the last effort, Muneri simply switched off one of his mobile phones.

Meanwhile, the station’s signal is being received around Louis Trichardt only, instead of from Alldays to Punda Maria and Musina up to ten kilometres outside of Polokwane, as was originally planned.

On the other hand, none of the presenters is being compensated for their contributions. This, according to the agreement which is standing now, will continue until after three months when remuneration packages will be negotiated.

The issue of people working for free seems to be affecting the station as many of the presenters must work from Monday to Friday and are starting to complain about the financial challenges.