Shaleshando not news in Daily News?

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Monday March 8, 2010 00:00

 

Gil Saleshando is the president of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) while Dumelang is the publicity secretary of the party.

A Botswana Press Agency (Bopa) reporter said he had always written stories about the BCP, which were spiked in preference for Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) articles.

The gag on the BCP officials has come at a time when the Gaborone Central MP, Dumelang has presented a motion in Parliament, seeking to present a bill on the declaration of assets and liabilities by national leaders.

When contacted over the weekend, Dumelang said he was not surprised by the move.  In fact, he saw it coming. To him, this is part of the struggle.  'There have to be casualties along the way,' he said.

He said the BDP feel threatened by his party's phenomenal growth.  'They are clearly worried by the performance of the BCP,' he said.

The Gaborone Central legislator said when Vice-President Mompati Merafhe was rejecting his motion, he said they should not give the limelight to the opposition.

Dumelang said it is illogical for government media to ban him as he is the BCP spokesman and Saleshando senior is the BCP president.  He said they (authorities) think that denying them coverage would slow down the growth of the party. 

'I am not going to spend sleepless nights mourning.  The BDP has never accepted fair play.  It is not surprising because this is a BDP agenda,' the BCP official charged. 

Dumelang said since he entered Parliament in 2004, his coverage by the state media has not been proportionate with the contribution that he has made.  'It is something that I have learnt to live with,' he said.

He said his party is not concerned by the snub because it (BCP) was not made popular by the Daily News.  'We should be prepared for more hostility from the state media,' he said.

The outspoken legislator said the challenge they are faced with is not to complain but to seek an alternative voice.  'The challenge is to identify more options to communicate with the public.'

He said the government decided to transfer the state media back to the Office of the President (OP) to ensure tight control.  The MP said even though the BDP is always talking about privatisation government would never privatise the state media because it is a vehicle that they rely on it. 

Dumelang said the state media has always been biased against the opposition.  He said during the countdown to last year's general election, Botswana Television (Btv) was giving smassive coverage to the BDP at the expense of the opposition parties.

He said the BDP is abusing state resources to stay in power.

Last year, the Botswana National Front (BNF) protested about the state media's apparent bias towards the BDP. 

The BNF even wrote a letter to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to express their concern.

But the Director of Information Services, Kebareng Solomon, has flatly denied the claims that they have instructed their parliamentary reporters not to cover the two BCP legislators.  She said she has never made such an order. 

Solomon claimed that they give equal coverage to all the MPs who make contributions in the House irrespective of their party affiliation. 

She challenged the two MPs to show their stories that were not published in the Daily News.  'You can use Daily News copies to judge that we give coverage to all the MPs,' she said. 

She said like editors on every publication, they occasionally spike certain articles for various reasons.  

Accusations have always been levelled at the state media that it is biased towards the ruling party.  Last year the Director of the Broadcasting Services, Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo came under attack after he appeared on television to read a BDP statement that was made by its president Ian Khama.  In his statement, Khama was justifying why he decided to suspend their secretary general, Gomolemo Motswaledi, who had been popularly elected at the July Kanye congress. This was at a time when BDP factions were at their peak. The state media has never bothered to report on the BDP's internal battles.  Even last year when BDP feuds intensified, nothing was mentioned in the state media, critics say.