Ehlanzeni District Municipality (EDM) held successful media networking sessions on Friday September 30 during a morning and night event.
This brought Mpumalanga-based journalists together to network and deliberate on how to effectively communicate with communities and spokespersons.
Journalists have continuously acted as the middlemen to disseminate information to communities on behalf of governmental institutions such as the EDM.
Various issues were discussed during this well-attended occasion; topics such as communication between municipality spokespeople and journalists, the challenges faced by journalists to get feedback, the changes within the media since the 80s and how some communities ended up protesting due to the lack of communication from local municipalities.
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Bheki Nxumalo, the programme director, said some of the challenges that communities face are the lack of communication by local municipalities.
“After the apartheid regime ended, there was no one who went back to the communities to say they are now the government, and it is not the responsibility of the people staying in the urban areas alone.
This is the reason why we continue to see that the percentage of people paying services in townships is low, and those in town continue pay as required.”
They had guests speakers who did presentations on issues related to the media industry. One was Goodenough Mashego, a poet, political and cultural activist and all-round artist, who has published three volumes of poetry, Journey with Me, Taste of My Vomit and Just Like Space Cookies, and is a literary adjudicator for both the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award and the South African Literary Awards.
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The second speaker was Mathatha Tsedu, who started his journey as a freelancing journalist, and is an adjunct professor and acting executive director of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef). He is a member of the advisory board of the Unisa School of Governance, seasoned media trainer and a member of the Council for the advancement of the SA Constitution.
He has served as an editor at a number of SA newspapers, namely Sunday Times and City Press, and as deputy head of news at SABC.
He was a general manager for strategic development and projects at Media24 News.
He was head of the Media24 Journalism Academy, responsible for training working and learner journalists, and the chairperson of The African Editors Forum and of Sanef. He is a recipient of a number of awards.
Tsedu shared his experience of journalism during the apartheid regime.
