Minister Walks Out On Btv Crew

| Monday December 14, 2009 00:00

 

The minister who was one of the panellists was irked by the fact that the production crew delayed in starting the show. The crew was still assembling the production equipment with the panelists already seated in the studio and Seretse walked out, saying he did not come to watch people doing their work.  He said the crew should have long prepared for the debating programme rather than  waste time setting up the production equipment. Other panellists included the MP for Kgalagadi South, John Toto, University of Botswana (UB) criminologist Dr Ikanyeng Malila and Monitor Correspondent, Lekopanye Mooketsi.  The topic of discussion was supposed to be the crime situation in the country based on President Ian Khama's speech during his State of the Nation Address.

The panellists were told that the shooting of the programme would start at 8am, but they were through with make-up, when they were kept waiting in the studio as the production crew assembled equipment. Seretse protested that the programme was supposed to start at 8am and summoned the producer to ask him what was happening.  Apparently, the production crew had been covering another programme. Seretse said he was scheduled to attend a function at the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) camp at 9am and hence failure to start the programme meant he will be late.

This is not the first time that Seretse came for the programme and did not participate. Two weeks ago, he came for the shooting, but the debate was cancelled because the other panellists did not turn up. On Friday, Btv general manager, Joe Sejoe, apologised to Seretse for the delay but the minister wondered how such delays can happen at the state-owned TV station. Sejoe who joined Btv this year, is a retired senior police officer.

He told Monitor that the time that they had set for recording the Matlho-a-Phage programme was not suitable for the panellists.  He said they have learnt from their mistakes.  This is the second week in a row that the shooting of the Matlho-a-Phage programme has been cancelled.  Last week the debate on the constitutional review did not take place because the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was not represented.  BDP officials claimed that they never stopped Btv from shooting the programme in their absence. Opposition party officials who were invited for debate blamed Btv for favouring the BDP.  They said the shooting of the programme should have gone ahead even without the BDP officials.