In this article, the writer seeks to look back at the working relationship that existed with successive cabinet ministers whose portfolio responsibility included the department of Information and Broadcasting. The writer picks on seven such ministers without necessarily undermining others who also played a role in that department. The starting point is on Daniel Kwelagobe who served longer than the rest. Kwelagobe was affectionately called “DK”. Some simply called him “Dan”. He was also the ruling party Secretary General. He had previously worked at the station at the heart of the nation and he never lost touch with the department since his departure to become a politician. He mingled freely with several staff members of the department. Put differently, it could be said that he had infiltrated the department to a point where he knew every reporter’s political inclination.
The other day I and Bapasi Mphusu were assigned to cover parliament. During tea break, we whaled time on the grounds of parliament with him, Lemme Makgekgenene and Obed Chilume casually discussing political matters. Somehow the performance of the Daily News and Radio Botswana cropped up. The discussions were calm and punctuated with laughter. Somehow the politics of the department cropped up with “DK” telling all of us that that he knew every reporter at the department and their political inclination. He named several reporters at both the radio and the paper and their political interests explaining that more often than not, they tended to favour the opposition Botswana National Front (BNF) as opposed to his Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). When it appeared he had exhausted the list, Chilume pointed a finger at Mphusu and asked where “this one’s political interest” rested. Without hesitation, “DK” said “he is for BNF”. Next it was Makgekgenene wanting to know about me. He asked, “Kgabo e nee”? “Dan” replied, “This one’s party is Linchwe (Kgosi),” adding, “If Linchwe is BNF today, he too is BNF and if Linchwe becomes BDP today, he too becomes BDP”. Admittedly, nobody asked “Dan” about reporters at the department whose political views were in line with those of the BDP and if they ever favoured that party in their reporting. But surely there were some.
“Dan” was an interesting character. He told me this story the other day. During the mourning period following Sir Seretse Khama’s death, celebrations, cultural events were banned for one month. Radio Botswana had been instructed to play religious music only. One day when he switched on the radio, he heard mpaqanga music being played. He picked up the phone and dialed Radio Botswana’s continuity section furiously telling the continuity announcer to stop playing what he was playing and revert to better music. The announcer was Motshegetsi Gasennelwe if I remember well. She was so confused not knowing exactly what to do because she thought she was doing what she had been told to do during the mourning period. The minister’s wife, Queen Kwelagobe overheard the conversation from the bedroom. She knew the radio had been left tuned on that famous Bantustan radio station called Radio BOP. The wife went to the seating room to tell her husband that he was guilty of mistaken identity because it was not Radio Botswana but Radio Bophuthatswana he was listening to. “DK” immediately cleared the confusion he had caused to the announcer by phoning back to the continuity office apologizing. That was “DK” he swallowed his pride. Generally he was a nice fellow.
Then there was Ponatshego Kedikilwe otherwise popularly known as “PHK”. He is well built. I don’t know if he is a linguist but he speaks Setswana, English, Afrikaans and Latin very well. Again I don’t know whether BNF”s Paul Rantao had natural hatred of “PHK” or what. He used to tell me that “PHK” was the most vicious in the BDP and he once described the size of his jacket as resembling that of “tente ya leso”. Those were his views. Perhaps the problem with Rantao was that “PHK” was politically a very strong man. The “PHK” that I worked closely with, was an understanding man when it came to stories. He would express displeasure on a particular story but he would not be as angry as some people tried to portrait him. If the story was about him and he felt he was quoted out of context, he would make his point known either in writing a correction or doing it verbally. The only time when he caused the suppression of a story was when both the members of the House of Chiefs and parliament were at each other’s throat. He ordered the suppression of such stories with a view to ending war of words between the two houses. May be he should have used a different method to achieve his goal but I don’t see the one which would have worked better than what he chose. His two terms as the minister responsible were marred by uprisings in certain areas of the country. He was there during the Bontleng riots in Gaborone. He was there again during the Mochudi riots which were sparked by the gruesome murder of Segametsi Mogomotsi. The Bontleng riots broke out following a radio interview with a traditional doctor called Michael Segobaetso claiming that Malebo Baoki, the young girl who had gone missing from her parents’ home in Gaborone for days had been found hidden inside the house of Veleminnah Direleng at Bontleng. It turned out that Segobaetso lied to a “Tatediso ya dikgang” programme producer.
Then General Mompati Merafhe arrived from the military barracks. The soldier man had a strong mission when he arrived. Apparently he had been observing laxity in the public service and his priority was set on curbing it. That was good enough. A few days after becoming a cabinet minister, he warned the public service to change their unacceptable time management habits. This is how he put it, “If you know you have to go to work in the morning and you don’t have transport of your own and you know that the combi driver fools around before going to work, you must budget for that fooling around”. He came also at a time when factions in the BDP were rife and joined one of them whose aim was to topple the Kedikilwe/Kwelagobe faction. The later had controlled the party for many years. That put him at a collision cause with the department. One day, he piloted the penal code amendment bill whose purpose was to legalize abortion under certain circumstances. It became know unofficially as the abortion bill and was unpopular especially among religious groups and the clergy. During a meeting addressed by President Masire at Tlokweng one day, the reverent John Phillip appealed to the president that he must watch General Merafhe carefully because he was doing things which would tarnish the image of the presidency. He said Merafhe refused to listen to the public who were opposed to the abortion bill. The next day, the story about views expressed by reverent John Phillip was in the Daily News’s front page. He was angered and seriously for that matter. He phoned Samuel Moribame who was the Chief Press Officer claiming that the intention of the writer was to tarnish him at the expense of his comp editors in the party. Moribame disagreed saying that BDP factions played no part in the reporter’s mind when he wrote the story the way it was. He had the guts to tell Merafhe that any other seasoned reporter would have written it that way. The president’s next meeting was in Molepolole. Similar sentiments about Merafhe were expressed by Julius Bodigelo.The reporter who had covered the Tlokweng meeting was the same one covering the Molepolole meeting. He decided to ignore those sentiments out of fear.
After Merafhe, another general in the name of Ian Khama Seretse Khama arrived. The man’s presence was hardly felt. It was as if he was not there. The only time when his presence was felt was when he visited the department to familiarize himself with its work. During that visit, he interacted with the staff and listened to their grievances some of which were solved on the spot. Complaints came from broadcasting section where reporters charged that they were not allowed to broadcast football matches live outside Gaborone and that un Sundays they had to give way for church service if games proceeded beyond six o’clock. Nothing can be remembered about Mrs. Costume and Boyce Sebetlele except that they did not interact with reporters much.
The next was Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi who was hands on all the time. She fitted well as minister because at least he had background of what entails a good story. She had previously worked at Mmegi newspaper when Patrick Van Ransburg was in charge. She clashed with the department during the protracted trial which was dubbed the “CKGR/Relocation trial” by the Daily News. The management at the department wanted to withdraw the reporter who they had assigned to cover the case explaining that he had been away from office for a very long time and that he should come back to perform other duties. Reasons were unconvincing and Venson overruled the decision. The department was unhappy and therefore took the matter with the presidency without rooting it through the ministry. Venson put her foot down telling the presidency that she was capable of dealing with it and it should therefore be returned to her office. The presidency obliged and her word prevailed. What she was saying was that the Basarwa were the applicants in the case and their version had been adequately covered by the Daily News. It was now the state case and she wanted consistency in news coverage. She did not doubt other reporters but felt their coverage good as it could be, would not be inconsistent with the work of the reporter who started with the case. Venson was strict with the manner in which the staff especially female staff dressed up. She was against them exposing their cleavage.
