We don’t solve personal problems

We have to continue to educate our readers as to the role of a newspaper embedded in the community like The BEAT.

The difference between the mainstream and community press is that reporters at The BEAT are very much visible to the reading public, comparable to say the Sunday Sun whereby I was the inaugural news editor.

At the Sunday Sun I used to write a popular column titled “Beyond the headlines”, with readers from far-flung areas such as Cape Town or Musina, having no clue how I looked like, or my favourite beer.

Having said that, I remember the other day I was on a film scriptwriting workshop at the medieval settlement of Genandedal, east of Cape Town.

One of the visitors at the workshop was a Coloured gentleman whose face was very much familiar.

At breakfast I suggested to the man that I must have met him somewhere.

He smiled and replied he had been thinking the same about me, that it was not for the first time he saw my face and my signature beret.

I scratched my head, trying to figure out where the heck I met this perfect gentleman with a warm smile.

When I returned to the workshop, one of my fellow students, John Barker (yes, Clive Barker’s son!), winked and revealed to me that we were so honoured as to be visited by no less a mortal than Abdullah Ibrahim.

My foot! By suggesting he knew me from somewhere, the great pianist had unsettled me, and caused my mind to go into a tailspin.

With that state of mind, I would not be able to recognise I was sharing the breakfast table with Abdullah Ibrahim, he of the internationally-acclaimed “Mannenberg” classic of all time.
Back to our own reporters.

Lizzy Bapela, Mzamane Ringane and TK Mashaba have to work with communities face to face, on a daily basis.

I often receive a call from the three of them complaining how this or that politician called them at midnight to do this or that story.

It was even worse for Lizzy the other day, when a prominent Bela-Bela politician called her in the morning, to report on certain volunteers who were rebuilding a destitute person’s house, and that she go to the scene immediately.

When Lizzy tried to reason that she had just awoken from sleep, the politician gave her a lecture in good journalism, daring that when a story breaks, reporters left everything they were doing, and respond promptly. Really?

Of late Lizzy and TK have been on the receiving end of a Bela-Bela resident, complaining about how the municipality had dug a sewerage network in his yard without “consultation”.

Interestingly, the man is an employee of the municipality, meaning he has more inner access to the city fathers, comparable to Lizzy and TK.

For the umpteenth time I repeat: Our role is to report on events without fear nor favour, but then we cannot become a platform to solve individual’s personal problems.

Pray for us, oh dear reader, do pray for us.

– The BEAT