On Monday night I came across a video clip that warmed my heart.
Staff members at the Spar in Vincent, East London, were bidding farewell to one of their own. They congregated in a corner of the store in full song of praise for a man the clip identified as “Rowan”. It was his last day before a new adventure.
Only an exceptionally good-natured human being and manager (I’m assuming he was their manager) would warrant that sort of a farewell.
“uRowan lo, abamazi lo, abazangebambona” (this is Rowan, they don’t know him, they have never seen one like him). It is a tune you mostly hear at political rallies or sports stadiums, and is one of the highest forms of praise followers can bestow on a leader or sports star. There was nary a dry eye in the place as individual staff members extended both arms in final embrace towards an inconsolable Rowan.
I have never stepped inside this supermarke; nor have I ever interacted with Rowan or any of the store workers who gave him that emotional send-off. But that 30-second clip left a big lump in my throat. Only an exceptionally good-natured human being and manager (I’m assuming he was their manager) would warrant that sort of a farewell.
We are country where good news is in such short supply that we cling to every morsel of it on those rare occasions when it shows up in our news or social media spaces.
As journalists we are often accused of having an irrational obsession with negativity. If it bleeds, it leads ...
But can you blame us when the content populating our diaries is an overwhelming barrage of daily horror?
Sure, news people have a greater responsibility to unearth good-news stories because there are people who are doing amazing things who mostly fly under the radar.
However, in a country where an orgy of violence is the staple diet, it remains an imperative of news gatekeepers to use this same mirror to reflect the unflattering image of the broken society we have become. Even when violence does not dominate, relations remain toxic. Look at the three-month wage dispute at Sibanye-Stillwater. Neither the unionised workers who lose millions in unpaid wages, nor the company potentially sitting on billions in lost productivity are willing to budge for the sake of their common future.
The commodities boom might be great for the miner’s bottom line at the moment, but what happens when that cycle fizzles out? Somewhere between Sibanye headquarters and the offices of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the unions at the heart of the dispute, there must be level-headed managers and officials who see the warning signs and want to mitigate the long-term damage of a dispute that could end tomorrow if both parties moved an inch — unions downwards, management upwards.
A sliver of good news was served by Stats SA on Tuesday when it released the quarterly labour force survey. The unemployment rate has fallen for the first time in seven quarters.
A sliver of good news was served by Stats SA on Tuesday when it released the quarterly labour force survey. The unemployment rate has fallen for the first time in seven quarters as the mining and manufacturing industries added jobs.
Unemployment in the first quarter of 2022 is down to 34.5% from 35.3%. When you look at the expanded definition, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, unemployment fell to 45.5% from 46.2% in the fourth quarter. Manufacturing was the star performer, adding 263,000 jobs. Mining added 36,000 jobs in the period under review, which is very encouraging. Hopefully the stubborn players at Sibanye-Stillwater don’t reverse these gains in the future.
Of course, these figures are cold comfort when you consider 7.8-million economically active adults are still out there desperate for some form of income. Also, the slight drop in unemployment could just be a reflection of post-lockdown normalisation, but I choose to see it through an optimistic lens. Good news is always better than the alternative.
Journalists have their hands full chasing murders, accidents and fires, as well as political, labour and social disputes. There is not enough manpower in shrinking newsrooms to fully commit resources to good-news gathering.
Government, business, civil society organisations and communities have to alert them to to their own good news so we can dilute the daily dose of horror and mayhem.
I live in hope.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.