ONKGOPOTSE JJ TABANE | Intimidation and secrecy foment a terrible communications culture

I recently visited Zambia where President Hakainde Hichilema stopped his programme for two full days to discuss and be trained on the government’s communications and media engagement. It was a marvel to watch a head of state take communications so seriously that he got his entire cabinet and permanent secretaries to subject themselves to media and communications training.

What was illustrative was his own approach to communications and the riot act he read to his ministers. It was not your typical written speech but a heartfelt appeal to his cabinet team to “climb down” from their ivory towers and connect with the people. He berated the ministers for not making enough time to engage with communities and the media.

He ask them what could be more important than to connect with the very people who voted them into power. Media in that country has got used to settling for spokespersons to communicate government programmes because ministers are too busy. The head of state would have none of it.

A communications culture in a government is a tone set by the head of state. If a head of state or those around him treat the media with disdain, his ministers follow that example.

We all remember how under former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma there were huge mutterings about the so-called media tribunal that was brandished as a sword to intimidate journalists from brave report. At the time we all thought it was just a crazy idea promoted by unhinged youth league leaders who couldn’t stand media freedom. But now with the hindsight of all the scandals such as the arms deal and Nkandla, we know better.

A communications culture that includes intimidation and secrecy creates refuge for politicians who have plenty to hide. Before we knew it cartoonists were sued by our head of state and the ANC Today was launched presumably as an alternative to the hostile media narrative.

It is now something that we have come to accept that our president hardly takes questions from the press unless it’s a meaningless door stop where he jokes around and does not account properly for his actions and utterances.

In 2018 we were promised a new dawn. But alas, before such a dawn could break we were scrambling for answers about who on earth funded the president to ascend to power, and courts were successfully used to deny the public that knowledge to this very day.

It is now something that we have come to accept that our president hardly takes questions from the press unless it’s a meaningless door stop where he jokes around and does not account properly for his actions and utterances. The last time the president had a proper media conference with editors was years ago. We have no idea how that feels. Maybe when he travels to the G20 when he has no choice but to face international media. Other than that he will give 20 minutes to each TV channel after the so-called January 8 Statement, and even this has started to evaporate. Apparently like the Zambian cabinet members he is otherwise engaged. His diary is simply too full.

And so last week when members of the media were treated with disdain in the Eastern Cape I was not surprised as someone who has been asking for a one-on-one interview for years and had to settle for scraps on the sidelines of January 8th event. Ramaphosa has since 2018 never allowed his cabinet to pause and consider how they best communicate with the very voters who have rejected them at the 2019, 2021 and 2024 polls. No wonder. Despite his ANC branch in Soweto he has never once-visited Soweto TV or Jozi FM. Some of his ministers would be lost if they were to be invited to Alex FM, a station whose township they reference in political conversations all the time. This is a radio station that had close to half a million listeners at last count. Maybe the listeners are not worthy.

And so a terrible tone has been set. No surprise if it’s a battle for some ministers to make themselves available for serious interviews where they can be made to account for the many unkept promises of the last three decades. After all, the fish of a terrible communications culture rots from the head. And so it is pervasive across government. In performance agreements of ministers and senior officials, communications is not a serious Key Performance Indicator.

While the Communications Task Team report (2000) recommended that senior officials be appointed in the communications function, this has been roundly ignored by politicians who prefer to appoint juniors in this role or cronies who would never advise them property. With a few notable exceptions, the spokesperson cut from the same cloth as the first GCIS CEO, Joel Netshitenzhe, or a Themba Maseko has become extinct. Government as a whole has neglected communications — it’s no wonder the GCIS has had no permanent head for more than a decade, rendering government at the highest level disconnected from the very people it purports to represent.   

One wonders whether the situation can be repaired. The ANC is led by young people who one would assume are more awake and can read the writing on the wall — that unless the ANC starts talking to its constituency a lot more seriously, it will have no future in governance. Like his counterpart in Zambia it’s time Ramaphosa changed his way with the press and took his cabinet with him.

• Prof JJ Tabane is adjunct professor of media studies at the University of Botswana. He is communications expert and editor of BBQ and Leadership Magazines. He holds a PhD in Media Studies from Wits University. His PhD focused on the complicated relationship between the media and the state in the new South Africa

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