When The Voice Newspaper carried a story about the deputy permanent Secretary for Information Services and Broadcasting, Oshinka Tsiang and Susan Tsiang having remarried, a few people expressed some reservations about the story arguing that it was not newsworthy. They felt the newspaper blew it out of proportion. I saw nothing wrong with the story because Oshinka is a media personality which makes him a public figure.
For me the story came at the right time because it reminded me of the October 1975 incident in Kasane when actor Richard Burton and actress Elizabeth Tailor remarried 16 months after their ten-year-old marriage had ended in a divorce. The couple had been married to other people before their first marriage. Their second marriage did not last long. It could have lasted for one and half years or less. What also came to my mind upon remembering the Burton/Tailor story is initial reaction of the Department of Information Services to the news of the Burton/Tailor’s remarriage. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Tailor were holidaying in the Chobe area when they “secretly” remarried in Kasane. Their marriage was conducted by the District Commissioner, Ambrose Masalila who is the former assistant minister of Local Government and Lands.
It is said the news of their wedding surfaced five days later when they were still in the Chobe. Almost all major weekend South African newspapers carried the story with bold headlines in their front pages. The Sunday Times went further to emphasize that “their wedding was conducted by a black district commissioner”. Had it been in South Africa, it would not have been a black district commissioner conducting the marriage because of that country’s apartheid laws. In fact, there was no black district commissioner in South Africa at that time. Such positions were for whites only. The BBC’s Focus on Africa used the term “African district commissioner” to describe the colour of the presiding officer who conducted the wedding. Therefore, the involvement of a black man was also a big thing in the story. It also underscored the fact that, in democratic Botswana, one’s colour did not matter. Botswana was the only multiparty democracy in Southern Africa at the time. It was an island of peace.
When the news broke out that the two had remarried in Kasane, people in the US and some parts of Europe, started looking in the map to see where Kasane was in Botswana. It was a dusty small undeveloped township then. To reach the area from Gaborone by road was difficult because of the terrain. The Nata/Kasane road known as Botzam Road for Botswana and Zambia was sandy and difficult to traverse. Government vehicles preferred travelling inside Zimbabwe through Wankie and Victoria Falls to reach Kasane with easy. Elizabeth Tailor was so delighted at seeing Kasane’s wildlife that she had to pledge to build a spacious clinic for the township but the promise never materialized.
However, the reaction of the Director of the Department of Information Services, Lepetu Ephraim Setshwaelo was interesting. News of the wedding coincided with a week-long workshop for district reporters in Gaborone. The Daily News which was the only national newspaper in Botswana failed to come up with the story, something which made Lepetu Setshwaelo very angry. The Kasane Information office was not far from the district commissioner’s office where the wedding took place yet it failed to break the story. We were scooped by media houses very far away from us. Setshwawelo was totally unhappy seeing his department being shamefully scooped. He asked whether district reporters had established rapport with district commissioners so that they were up to date with events district commissioners were carrying out in their respective areas. In his view, the failure to establish such with district commissioner was a clear case of weakness on the part of information officers. He blamed them for never checking with their local news sources on daily basis. He did not understand how such a big story about the Burton/Tailor’s marriage could be missed by a reporter when it took place a stone-throw away from the newsroom.
The only thing the Kasane based reporter could say in answer to Setshwaelo’s query was that he did not know that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Tailor were film stars. He had never heard of such personalities before. But how could a reporter who had never been exposed to a television set be aware of the existence of such people as Richard Burton and Elizabeth Tailor as actor and actress? It was very difficult of course. Around that time, there was no television in Botswana. South Africa had one but it was mostly in urban areas. Nevertheless Setshwaelo’s concern was justified. If the reporter had built rap pour with the district commissioner, he would have been first on the spot. The international press would probably have quoted the Daily News as the source of the story. From the beginning, the couple had kept their marital plans secrete and the plan worked wonderfully. Even the sophisticated international press did not know until days after. They kept their plans so secrete that they did not bring anybody from home to witness for them. Two employees of Chobe Game Lodge were brought in to witness for the couple.
Setshwaelo was not just an ordinary administrative officer. Upon being appointed to head the department, he felt that for him to cope well, he should have journalistic background because the core function of the department was news. He then decided to enroll with one of the universities in the United States for master’s degree in journalism. After a year he returned home to resume his duties.
Ask Batshani Ndaba, Keboeletse Nkarabang, Andrew Sesinyi, Lamong Leshage and Phagane Tladi what the man represented as director, they will tell you that he was everything that a director of a professional department needed to be. Everybody, the professional and non-professional staff enjoyed working with Setshwaelo from day one to the last day as the director when he left to join an international organization in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He rarely spent time in the comfort of his office. He spent much of the time in the newsroom either re-writing, editing stories like sub-editors did. He would fold up his shirt’s long sleeves and go into the paste-up room to cut and paste stories in the Daily News dummy. You would see him crafting headlines and proof-reading. He would personally call a district reporter asking for clarity if necessary.
Whenever it was necessary, he wrote editorial commentary for The Daily News. One such commentary was after the President Sir Seretse Khama had condemned the holding of initiation and circumcision ceremonies by Bakgatla in Mochudi saying the event was divisive, outdated and uncivilized coming at a time when they had thought they had won the war against tribalism. The commentary was a call for public debate on the issue on Radio Botswana and advising the nation to debate freely on a matter of which the Head of State had already declared his stance and stressing that the country’s constitution guaranteed freedom of speech.
In 1976, he called me for clarity on a controversial story I had filed from Palapye. The story pitted the area’s Member of Parliament, Moutlakgola Ngwako and councilor Stanley Mabogo on the one hand and the Community development officer, Bruru Owageng and the village development committee on the other. He stressed the need for reporters to always be punctual at events saying that would enable reporters to see the unexpected. He wanted reporters to arrive an hour before the event started. I can state without hesitation that anybody who did not get the chance of working with Setshwaelo has missed a lot. He was a gentleman. Even in politics we are told he never imposed ideas on his followers. It is unfortunate that his party, BAM did not make it to the top.
