Journalists must look harder for the truth
A NEW brand of journalists, especially on the SABC, is emerging.
There was a long period, probably as a leftover from apartheid when announcers and newsreaders were absolutely docile and mostly in awe of the so-called dignitary being interviewed.
Searching questions were seldom posed. Answers from those being interviewed were mostly accepted at face value. Very few newsreaders ever dared to challenge the likes of Cabinet ministers about service delivery and public accountability.
My favourite programme at present is Morning Live, which features the dynamic pair of Leanne Manas and Sakina Kamwendo.
Sakina always boldly goes for the jugular, and does not ever accept superficial answers.
Her favourite line is: “So what have you been doing about this?”
Her interviews are incisively scintillating and entertaining.
But this letter is about the serious accountability that all government servants owe to the general public.
Whether to do with this pandemic, corruption, schools reopening, taxi strikes, load shedding or other municipal deficiencies, Sakina tries to get to the bottom of real issues.
Scholars of intensive debating skills and budding journalists who treat that profession as a passion should watch Sakina and take a couple of leaves out of her hat.
Newsreaders and all other reporters should bear this one thing in mind and not treat this once noble field as just a career to put food on the table.
The public needs truth to once again surface in a world that has been frighteningly submerged into a thoroughly opaque, muddy quagmire of lies. EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban