A young Ugandan TV journalist is on the run and in hiding following a question he posed to President Yoweri Museveni at a function where the latter was being formally nominated to run for his seventh term.
Galaxy TV reporter David Mwesigwa last week asked Museveni about conditions at three hospitals: Mukono, Kayunga and Namuganga. The reporter said the hospitals were overcrowded, with mothers giving birth on the floor at Mukono.
At Kayunga, the oxygen plant had been faulty for a year, and at Namuganga, there were only four doctors who did not work on weekends. Mwesigwa reminded Museveni that he, the reporter, had posed the same questions at an earlier press conference and wanted to know what the president would do about the situation.
Museveni was uncharacteristically cool about the question, and asked Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to follow up and find a solution. Two days later she did, and at the first unannounced visit to Mukono, she was shocked and said, “What I have seen is heartbreaking … That’s not right.”
By the time she got to the other two hospitals, staff had cleaned them up, and according to the Monitor newspaper also “cleared the crowds before her visit”. Mwesigwa had attended the Mukono visit but did not attend the other two.
Standing at one of the hastily spruced-up hospitals, Nabbanja called on the police and other government officials to summon Mwesigwa and make sure he apologised. “He should apologise to the president, to the people and me personally,” she declared.
And Mwesigwa has been on the run since, no longer staying at home for fear of being arrested. Rumours started flying that he had in fact been arrested, but he posted a video stating that he had “not yet” been arrested but was in hiding.
The outburst by Nabbanja came, ironically, in the week of World News Day, when the journalism world was reaffirming its commitment to “credible, ethical and impactful journalism”. It was also the week of the International Day for Universal Access to Information.
Nabbanja obviously did not like having to traipse around filthy and crowded hospital corridors, and wants to teach the uppity journalist a lesson. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that she thinks she can simply order the police to bring Mwesigwa in and force him to apologise to her.
She has learnt from the best, her boss, who at 79 has been in power for almost 30 years and has terrorised his opponents using state machinery. It is a virtual dictatorship.
During Nelson Mandela’s presidency, Madiba met with the editors every quarter. Thabo Mbeki wasn’t too keen but did it anyway. Kgalema Motlanthe, during his short stint, also met with the editors. Jacob Zuma did it less frequently.
Here at home, the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) has a different problem. During Nelson Mandela’s presidency, Madiba met with the editors every quarter. Thabo Mbeki wasn’t too keen but did it anyway.
Kgalema Motlanthe, during his short stint, also met with the editors. Jacob Zuma did it less frequently. Cyril Ramaphosa has not met with the editors since 2022. It is not a small issue. Accounting to the nation cannot be done only through “Fellow South Africans” monologues. Open meetings with editors, off-the-record sessions and deep backgrounds are the hallmarks of a leader who believes in transparency.
These are not simply media conferences, but discussion forums where understandings are sought and shared. It makes for a media that understands where the government is going, and a government that is disabused of seeing the media as an enemy. Sanef has now taken the unprecedented step of embarking on a campaign, called “Appointment with the President”, to force Ramaphosa to sit down with them.
Their rationale is that the editors represent the people, particularly the poor and rural ones who cannot confront power directly. That means the content of their platforms must reflect the issues of these poor and rural people serviced by hospitals that are no different from Mukono in Uganda.
A cursory look at the media in general shows that the poor and their issues feature mainly as the great uncouth, unwashed and irrational demonstrators toyi-toying as they block roads with burning tyres and “interfere” with vital economic activities.
When those poor people gather in their communities and talk, rationally, about issues, and send delegations to municipal offices where their complaints are ignored, the media is invariably not there. The poor may not be the target market of many media platforms, who focus on the middle and upper-class groups that advertisers cater to. However, if Sanef editors are going to use the poor to get an audience with Ramaphosa, they must also make sure the poor are reflected in their media, as rational people.
And indeed Ramaphosa must sit with the editors of this country without a storm being created for that to happen.
We are not Uganda, yet.
Tsedu is a former editor of Sunday Times and a former chair of Sanef
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