The rapport between journalists and politicians in many instances can be equated to a love-hate relationship or best that of cats and dogs.
The same characterised my professional relationship with our beloved son of the Alexandrian soil, who rose from the ghetto to become the first mayor of the City of Gold to come from a historic township that has since been reduced to an equivalent of the Biblical City of Gomorrah.
The first time I interfaced with Moerane as a reporter of Alex News was when I went to cover a community report-back meeting of the members of the board of the Alex Clinic which Moerane was a part of.
Tempers were heated and a lot of name-calling was the order of the day from a section of disgruntled community members who were not happy with not just the running of the affairs of the clinic but the fact that the same faces and individuals were also at the helm of other institutions.
This amounted to what can be described today as the ‘capture of the township’ because if you were aggrieved at the clinic and you ran to the community radio station, you would still find the same faces, and the same at the CPF, school SGBs, community organisations and centres, etc.
I then highlighted this on numerous instances in the newspaper, including the fact that certain councillors were also members of boards of various institutions in the township. This did not go down well with Moerane who took issue with what I had written.
But, as I said, it was a love-hate relationship and never personal. He had his own believes, principles, narratives and thought processes which he stuck to.
To highlight the gentle giant he was, a firm believer in the betterment of the lives of Alexandrians, the City, the province and the entire country, Moerane would still call me and invite me to his community functions, meetings and events and even express that ‘we don’t hold grudges in this business of community advancement’.
Such was the gentle giant Mpho Moerane. Robala ka didimalo.
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