A few months ago I bumped into an acquaintance at one of the popular eateries in Mbabane.
We had not seen each other in a while, but after the usual ‘Hi hi’s’ he said it was good to see me and wondered how my new boss was treating me?
I wondered what new boss he was talking about and it turns out, as far as he was concerned, I was still with the Times.
There I was confused because I had left the other paper three years ago and I make it a point to almost, on a daily basis, post the front and back pages of the Eswatini Observer, let alone this very column on a weekly basis.
I was upset because this chap (I’ve down graded him to that) is a brilliant story teller and sometimes when I write this column, I wonder what this Chap would think about this.
Turns out our brother man has his own life and couldn’t be bothered who works where.
He suddenly vaguely remembered that I was now with the Eswatini Observer and tried to make a profuse apology, but it was too late, both our moods had been spoiled by that awkward moment.
However, after I got over my silly anger, I realised that clearly I was not doing enough at my job for people I hold in high esteem to realise I was there as much as I may personally think I am a hard worker.
However, I also realised during that encounter that people are going through their own stuff (bayagowisha) as it is said these days.
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How does me working for the media or rather one of the biggest newspapers change his world and it made me realise that we as media professionals should work harder and be visible out there.
That is why last Monday, when I won the Columnist of the Year Award at the beautifully held National Media Awards at the Royal Villas, I felt rejuvenated.
It actually does feel good to be recognised for your work and I would like to thank all the sponsors of the awards for considering us and once again putting the local media back on our pedestals.
The one thing the awards also made me realise was that I miss the field.
I miss picking up the phone and pursuing a story till the end.
The story need not be a scandal, but we as the media have been short-changing people in our stories.
All we seem to do is cover events and there’s nothing wrong at all with covering events, but I feel we have just been doing the basics and not telling our readers the main aspects of the story.
The fact that we almost always start our sentences with (and this is just an example) ‘The Minister of Education and Training Owen Nxumalo says Competency Based Education (CBE) is blah blah blah,’…14 words and we haven’t told our reader anything is just utterly boring in my opinion.
Do not get me wrong, being news editor is nice because it makes you think how to improve a story, but lately being an editor has turned out to be more of an administrative job, where you have to monitor adults what time they have come to work, left the office and how many stories they have slugged instead of concentrating on the real stories.
Being in the newsroom means reading other publications, be it online or on print and trying to find an angle that one could explore even further for the betterment of our nation.
One of the main reasons I like about the return of the awards, is that stakeholders (well not all of them) will start taking us seriously.
Lately, our stakeholders have a tendency of calling us at the eleventh hour and asking us to cover their event, which starts in say, 30 minutes.
Some are very quick to say ‘we can offer you transport to the venue’ and one wonders why they did not report such at least two days before so we too can plan.
I admit we do have challenges when it comes to some resources, but that does not give our stakeholders the leeway to call us at the last minute asking us to cover their event.
As one sits in this seat, one has also realised that some of our stakeholders think it is a must that we publish their events.
No it is not a must, but we work hand in hand.
Many a times especially on social media, I have seen people writing that they do not bother reading any of the dailies because of several reasons, which include that there are no longer any journalists, we lie and of course that they use the paper when mother nature is calling etcetera.
Some of the comments are heart breaking because for us in this industry, it is our bread and butter and the work we go through trying to put the paper together is a lot.
However, with these revived awards and acknowledgment of the work that we do in the newsrooms, I hope this will drive us all in the industry to strive for perfection as we execute our duties fairly and accurately.
Once again thank you to the organisers of the awards and sponsors and I may not promise to defend my title next year, but we will surely do better moving into 2026.
Oh and if you bump into me, feel free to call me an award winning journalist LOL.
Have a blessed and prosperous 2026 and remember to always be kind.
