No soft touch in his studio
The eNCA Africa boss inadvertently made SA giggle — and won a new audience
CHRIS Maroleng is the Africa editor and head of the Africa division of eNews Channel Africa. He hosts Africa 360, a weekly current affairs programme. He previously worked as a researcher for the Institute for Security Studies, heading its conflict and early warning unit.
I used to describe journalists as “media bunnies” because I felt that the analysis and insight on Africa really just reinforced the stereotype. When the opportunity arose here and the offer was made by e.tv, who had just set up their 24-hour news channel, I felt it was an opportunity to try and change perceptions in the newsroom around Africa and bring reporting about the continent into the mainstream. I quickly found myself becoming the biggest media bunny.
I didn’t realise how complicated and demanding TV was. To me it was a lazy man’s medium, a bunch of people giving superficial insights. But when it came to doing it, I began to realise just how tough it is to put together television. What was interesting was learning that process; it was difficult. I was terrible. I’ve seen tapes of when we did the pilot of 360. Luckily I had colleagues who were very patient and helped with the training and developed me and now it’s a little easier. ‘Africa 360’ was previously described as very highbrow, focusing on issues that the common man might not be interested in, but that quickly changed.
It changed rather suddenly because of a strange incident — we had a right-wing Afrikaner guy in our studio and I, in the heat of a confrontation with him, said, “Don’t touch me on my studio!” I didn’t find it very funny but apparently other people did. It brought in a new audience that might previously not have been interested, and it changed the demographic of the audience.
It still gets me free drinks when I go out. I’m the “don’t touch me on my studio” guy, but at the time I wasn’t happy about the incident. On reflection I thought I could have handled it differently. Eugene Terre Blanche had just died and I felt that an opportunity to engage with that subject was missed, and instead, in typical South African fashion, we chose to laugh at ourselves rather than really look at ourselves. I didn’t like the idea that a guy like me, (and I) took myself very seriously, could be the subject of such ridicule. That’s when I realised that the media is a doubleedged sword; it can be very powerful but it can be very superficial, and audiences can be moved by bad grammar.
My biggest nightmare is that as much as I love the continent, I love a continent where South Africa is a leader. We are an example for other countries to emulate, but why should they if they see that we are very liberal, have the best Bill of Rights, but can’t put food on the table and provide jobs and opportunities for our people?
I think the next stage of Pan Africanism will be driven not by leaders or elites but by people who begin to understand that we are very similar in terms of our aspirations. We all want jobs, we all want to be prosperous. When I covered the Arab Spring story, I thought I was going to meet a bunch of fundamentalist guys who were very religious but when I got there they were youths who were agitating for the same thing that youths in many parts of the continent are calling for.
I’ve become a pen-pusher. That’s what my day consists of, dealing with other people’s problems and making sure they can have an environment where they can be productive and do good work. My only creative release right now is Africa 360 where I’m able to go with the small team that produces it and sit down and look at stuff and interrogate it. With the 24-hour news cycle that we run, it’s like a treadmill and you have to feed this beast all the time. —