Union leaders vow to educate strikers on media tolerance

RYDER GABATHUSE
Staff Writer | Friday May 27, 2011 00:00

In Francistown for instance, reporter Patricia Maganu and photographer Karabo Sename had to drive away speedily as they were pursued by an angry group of strikers who accused them of being members of the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS).

Ironically, someone who knows them very well but was content with setting up a scene initiated the attack on them. The duo of Maganu and Sename were not even given a chance to meet the union regional leadership to possibly rescue them from the attacking unionists. As they were chased away, accusations like, 'you are spies, what do you want here!' were hauled at them. The car they were travelling in was pushed, lifted and pounded on as they drove away.

The scene, according to the two from the Mmegi newspaper stable was embarrassing, to say the least.  As professionals covering the strike, they thought they would be allowed to do their work without hindrance.As if this was not enough, last Friday, while covering a gathering of essential service employees at the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH) who had gone to collect their termination letters we were attacked by a mob. Sename had taken pictures of the gathering only to be confronted by a crowd that ordered him to 'delete the pictures or face the consequences.'

Young doctors, nurses and other essential services providers started shouting at us but we stood our ground that no one was going to force us to surrender our camera or any of our tools of trade for that matter.

We were encircled by this shouting mob but we maintained our cool and demanded answers for such an action and no one was prepared to explain.

'Delete those pictures ! Delete them! Shouted the mob of young health workers pushing us into a tight corner in the car park. We did not panic though I could see my colleague Sename was about to surrender but I refused anyone to touch our camera and pushed Sename shielding him from the invading strikers.

The verbal warfare initiated by some familiar faces, which chose to twist the facts and associate us with the DIS to suit their interests, later subsided. A young dentist shouted: 'I know them they are from Mmegi newspaper. What do they want here?' Another dentist was busy intimidating us with her cellphone camera taking pictures incessantly. We gave her the space to do as she wished knowing that everything had its limit.

At some stage, we were rudely ordered to leave: 'Tswang fa! Tswang fa ma DIS ke lona!' We just looked at them as if we did not hear what they were instructing us to do. We reminded them that there was no law which permitted them to chase us out of a public place. It was only after a doctor known to Sename explained, 'you cannot blame some of us because we don't know the role played by the media' that we came to appreciate the tempers and abuse. The unidentified doctor said that the union leadership never orientated them on how they should deal with the media. 'People I think are simply carried away because they were never guided as to how they should relate with others and in particular the media. I wonder why you are considered enemies of the struggle,' he further observed.

We tried hard to identify anyone in the leadership structure of the unions federation of BOFEPUSU but all in vain.When they were satisfied with their abuse, they started drifting away. This attack came a week after a freelance journalist working for Mmegi in Selebi-Phikwe, Calistus Kolantsho was attacked by strikers in the town centre. He was attacked by people who knew him just because he was taking pictures of them as they wreaked havoc in the mall, uprooting council waste bins and smashing car windows. Kolantsho was chased by council employees who knew him very well.

'They wanted to take the camera from me but I refused and they tried to beat me up and I ran for my dear life,' he said and added that after his escape he rushed to the office where he was forced to leave the camera for fear that it could be damaged.

Meanwhile, in Gaborone some media workers were harassed whilst others were chased away and warned not to turn up at the GSS grounds where the strikers had gathered. In many cases, the strikers were too judgemental, accusing media workers of being biased in their coverage of the strike.

BOFEPUSU regional secretary, Tshekatsheko Lekang has promised to talk to the strikers so that, 'they don't harass media workers.' He also promised that he would ensure that all media workers covering union activities get the requisite protection.

He blamed the recent harassment of media workers on 'ignorant people who could not separate the work of intelligence officers and the media.' After recent incidents he witnessed when some photographers were harassed under his nose, Lekang has vowed to educate the strikers.

This was after photographers were attacked when they went to take pictures of strikers when they sang and danced as their comrades collected their dismissal letters from the Francistown City Council premises.'This issue of media workers tolerance is going to form a crucial part of my speech this afternoon because I feel these incidents will get out of hand if not properly handled,' promised Lekang yesterday.

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana chapter acting director, Mpho Motlhabane related a recent incident in which a journalist in Gaborone was verbally abused whilst covering the strike.

'After a recent report we received, we found it important to appeal to the union leaders to train the strikers to be tolerant and respect other people doing their jobs,' he said yesterday. 'Unfortunately, I have been reading about some of the attacks and abuses of the media workers.'

He said, it was not good for the media workers to operate under an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.'I want to remind media workers that alerts include threats of any form, verbal, physical and otherwise. People should not shy away from reaching us to report abuses they encountered in line of duty.'

Motlhabane is disappointed that some unions are group members of MISA Botswana and he has always thought they were familiar with the operations of the media and would show tolerance and appreciation.