Rampholo Molefhe
26 June 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
In addition, the curiosity was fuelled by the 'hype'- real or false- that like the arrival of Seretse Khama, the coming of Ian Khama would be 'a great event'. Instead the arrival of the new Khama, in spite the Botswana Guardian caricatures that made him larger than life next to Mogae a few years ago, came off like a damp squib!
There was no Rametsana, no black wife in an African republic, no Princess Marina, no Zebras vs 'Chipolopolo,' no Kenneth Kaunda or Julius Nyerere, no rain and nothing to compare with the prospect of Barack Obama beating HiIlary Clinton to become the elected president of the United States; only an April Fool's Day and a '4Ds' speech who's highlight was the postponement of the announcement that another army general, Mompati Merafhe, would be made vice president.
The new administration did its best to make a great event out of the uneventful occasion: The street vendors would be allowed to sell food in the government offices.
The council went after them a few days later. The government offices would buy local art whilst the Three Kings disappeared behind the Gaborone skyline at Gaborone West.
So, Khamamania was not entirely the making of the press, but the joint effort of two attention seekers , the BDP and the media ..
In the absence of great events the press looked for an alternative source of greatness, not in Ian Khama, but in the manner that he chose to rule.
The press was confounded by what it discovered, even though it was not entirely unexpected. The new regime would rule by a two tier strategy: lickerish and suurlemoen.
The magic bag contained a series of bills that would turn Botswana into a closed society, open only to a clique of the president's men, the Khama family and its home girls, a handful of loyal soldiers, a few careerists at the head of the civil service and an invisible cartel of white emigrant advisors.
This cartel would be supported by a bunch of spooks who would gain legitimacy through the media practitioners' law, the intelligence act and the law that would outlaw cyber crime. All this in addition to military and police intelligence, the National Security Act, the Corruption and Economic Crimes Act and liquor and traffic laws that would deprive the populace of any spaces that might allow contemplation of resistance or revolution.
The day now belongs to the soldiers and the police, and the night to their intelligence units and the prostitutes. That is the sour lemon.
Surprise visits, soccer balls, music competitions and fireside chats would complete the menu, causing the santhokwe to taste like moretologa.
(It is said that Stalin once replied Churchill, who had asked what the communists meant by dialectics, that it is the thing that caused the cat to chase all day after its tail to lick the pepper that burnt its anus. Cats, as a general rule, hate pepper. When it is applied at the right place, they learn to love it).
And so, the press, having failed to find greatness in the man, has found a great curiosity in his manner of governance.
That is by no means the main concern of this contribution. Rather, it is the manner in which 'the leading newspapers' have trampled on the most valued values of journalism in the past 20 years that should be the cause of great distress.
Botswana society, having nursed the press through its most painful birth pains between 1983 and 1989, have only been rewarded with a journalism without journalists, newspapers without journalism and an information industry that is hardly worthy of the task of performing its expected role in building 'an educated and informed society'.
I speak here of a journalism of the flesh, completely bereft of spirit. They print more newspapers, and less news. They have more reporters and no journalists. More pages and less content.
Thereis no real dialogue with the community. There are no words, grammar, or a sense of the history and psychology of the Batswana, to say nothing of any attempt to master the specific craftsmanship of journalism. Compositions takethe place of 'news'.
Obsession with the Khamas is the least of the problems of the newspapers. It is the systematic murder of journalism that should be the great concern of the journalists.
The distinction between fact and opinion is only important at the primal level.Journalists know that even comment must be tested for fact, currency and its connection to the public interest. For example, it is wrong for newspapers to publish the opinion of a witchdoctor who says he can cure AIDs when the editor knows that there is yet no known cure for AIDs.
A fact, refers to the incontestable truth. Fact must be verifiable, and that is why proper journalism, unlike teaching or preaching, insists on relating the story through the third person.
The reader must be allowed the opportunity to ask the quoted source whether in fact what was reported is actually true. Journalism does not permit: "I saw him do it".
That is why the reporting on the Kalafatis case has been somewhat disconcerting.
Warning: This does not invalidare the newspaper reports on Kalafatis. Brilliant journalism says the way one arrives at the conclusion is as imotant as the conclusion.
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