Kgosi gets a break
Ryder Gabathuse | Friday August 8, 2014 14:44
Until last week Wednesday, local newspapers especially the private press, reported heavily on the unfolding story of the alleged corruption and suspected money laundering that Kgosi was accused of.
The recent expose came after sensitive information contained in a file held by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) was leaked.
But, ever since news of Motswaledi’s death broke, attention has shifted to his death, clearly blacking out news on the Kgosi saga.
Has the media, which is charged with the function of a watchdog role balanced with their business dynamics, killed the Kgosi story? This question and many others are being asked by the reading public as it comes to terms with the Kgosi story that vanished from the headlines before reaching a logical end.
Motswaledi’s sudden death has overshadowed all other major issues as newspapers continue to give preference to the developments surrounding the demise of the 44-year-old politician. In all this, it has become apparent that all the newspapers and private radio stations survive chiefly on the breaking story. In other words, the Motswaledi story has become ‘bigger’ than the Kgosi matter; more so because there are fears that his death could be the result of a political assassination, something most unheard of on our land.
A preliminary postmortem report has, however, reportedly ruled out foul play as reported in Mmegi this week. Even this pointer does not seemingly make the Motswaledi story any smaller. The story remains huge and the reader seeks to know even more in this political season.
It reminds me of the story of the death of former Debswana Managing Director, Louis Nchindo in the forests of Pandamatenga near the resort town of Kasane a few years ago.
Almost all other stories were overlooked at the time as reporters sought answers as to how Nchindo’s death came about. But, the Nchindo story had to die and of course with that, many questions remained unanswered. In the end, the Press had played its role.
Commenting on the reporting dynamics, University of Botswana media studies lecturer, Letshwiti Tutwane said this week: “First thing is that Motswaledi’s death was abrupt and it definitely has left a lot of people shaken.”
The UB academic observed that the Motswaledi accidental death came as a shock and acknowledged that whilst the media had lost hold of the Kgosi story, this was understandable and could not be interpreted as deliberate.
Historically, Botswana is a calm nation but to ordinary folks, the accidental death of an opposition leading politician in an elections year, sounds like political assassination.
“Motswaledi’s death is unprecedented as during the time of the former presidents Sir Seretse Khama, Festus Mogae and Ketumile Masire, these were unheard of,” he said.
He observed that after Motswaledi’s burial, it is highly likely that the Press will return to the Kgosi story if there is any more to report on as it seems there is a lot of unfinished business.
Former Mmegi editor, Mesh Moeti said such approaches to breaking news were not peculiar to Botswana. “News organisations put a high premium on immediacy in their coverage of events. It’s the nature of the commodity that new organisations trade in,” he said, adding that the consumer wants it fresh all the time.
“You saw how the international TV networks all set up camp in Nigeria immediately after the kidnapping of the school girls, but that interest quickly shifted to the fighting in Ukraine, and the downing of the Malaysian passenger plane. Now the top story is Israel’s incursion into Gaza,” the former Mmegi editor said.
In the case of Motswaledi, he noted: “It was inevitable that his death would receive such wide coverage given his standing in society, the shocking circumstances under which he died, as well as the current foul political climate in Botswana.”
For his part, Botswana Guardian editor, Joel Konopo, conceded the shift from Kgosi to the Motswaledi story.
“We have a problem of resources as the media generally, especially the private Press. With the limited resources, we chase what our resources can allow us to.”
He said, it is not possible to efficiently spread the available resources to cover the whole ground. “In my view, the story of Kgosi is still shrouded in secrecy and we merely thrived on leakages from the case file which was not enough at all.”
He however, acknowledged that there are instances where reporters chase issues and leave them incomplete. However, Konopo denied that they abandoned the story in favour of the breaking one.