{"id":9707,"date":"2022-07-25T14:05:45","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned"},"modified":"2022-07-25T14:34:17","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:34:17","slug":"no-lessons-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned","title":{"rendered":"NO LESSONS LEARNED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eswatini. <\/strong><\/span>You could say that in the wake of the latest cancellation of the SADC Summit (Plus Eswatini), we have been left scratching our heads as to the reasons for the summit to be postponed \u2013 and if it has anything to do with what has been published on the online platforms.<\/b><\/p>\n

And from the look of things, this we shall never know and so, many of our questions relating to why the summit was suddenly called off \u2013 for the second successive time \u2013 will not be answered any time soon, because it is not in government\u2019s interests to understand why this should be explained to us.<\/p>\n

In fact, not only that, it is just not in their line of thinking to do so, because our government still lives in the past with modus operandi of only saying less, and when they do, say it very softly.<\/p>\n

But this is problematic, and has been for as long as one can bother to look back. It has been a problem because it leaves the public looking for these answers, and many times therefore left with the alternative view \u2013 which is largely on social media. This then heightens emotions, and only leaves the public confused, if not vulnerable to the misinformation that is so widespread.<\/p>\n

In return, the public that feeds off information from the social media platforms has concluded one thing and one thing only \u2013 government is the enemy, and the people who have long declared war on the state, are the heroes.<\/p>\n

This has been clear even to a child, that from as a far as last year\u2019s civil unrest, social media was very influential in building a narrative against the state \u2013 much of which was easily labelled as fake news if not disinformation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like government, or in fact Cabinet, is not aware of this. This has been spoken about in hushed tones in the upper echelons of the political corridors and why it has not been addressed beats me.<\/p>\n

You would think for instance, that government would have learned its lessons when it put Alpheous Nxumalo on to the hot seat as government spokesperson, but that just appears now to have been a plan to paper over the cracks. Without any plan in place of creating a proper narrative, of being on the front foot with its own information, it has been more like \u2018the more things change, the more they stay the same\u2019.<\/p>\n

What the new government spokesperson has brought is strong rhetoric that appears to be reactionary than keeping the public informed and giving a clearer picture of the issues in public discourse.<\/p>\n

Explain<\/b><\/p>\n

This has certainly been the case with the recent SADC Summit controversy, which has shone the spotlight firmly on Eswatini and left the country needing to explain itself more than taking the initiative to set the tone.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s even more frustrating is that this Cabinet spent a good year or two with a communications agency for which we paid dearly. You would think that we learned from the engagement with Vuma Communications who we paid almost E3m just to make the country and cabinet look nice.<\/p>\n

According to Cabinet, Vuma was engaged purely to position this country internationally. Never mind that when the going got tough, Vuma left. But here\u2019s the thing; they were paid handsomely and so we should have learned some lessons from them, such as that in this day and age, information must be communicated.<\/p>\n

Vuma was brought in to teach Cabinet to speak its truth; to tell the world what it was doing; to shape its own narrative. That we need a foreign company to tell us this is a story for our children, but the sad part is that a year after they left, we are still making the same mistakes! The civil unrest was built on government failing to appreciate that it needed to speak to the public and it needed to do so with utmost sincerity and frequency. When government failed to do this, it played into the hands of those who were spreading the false narrative, and before long, this became gospel truth and thereafter government struggled to contain the wave of misinformation that had been spread.<\/p>\n

That is what gave momentum to the force that was spreading half-truths and fake news \u2013 that they banked on government saying nothing, or most of all speaking almost days and weeks later. That is the fatal mistake we are still making even today.<\/p>\n

So, take the issue of the SADC Summit. We all picked up the news of this summit from a newspaper in South Africa. Then it spread on social media like wildfire. No one from government said a thing; no one appeared to know anything about it also. A few days later, almost like a lifetime if you ask me, government finally came out to confirm what had already been spread and then did nothing with it also.<\/p>\n

Narrative<\/b><\/p>\n

By the time that government found its voice, there was no need, especially because they merely confirmed what was now known, which obviously works in the favour of social media platforms who had spread the narrative about the summit being on this and that. But the damage was in the other bits that remained untouched, the finer detail that matters to the people who have become used to finding things out online.<\/p>\n

It is clear from where I stand that there is a problem with how government treats these issues, and that the position is always to defend. This is just not good enough. The public needs to know, and needs to know as soon as there is something to know. This is the point that those at Hospital Hill need to understand and accept. It was shocking how government responded when the news of the summit being cancelled broke.<\/p>\n

For us in the media, this was extremely frustrating, because there clearly was no one to turn to, to get the truth or confirmation of what was spreading in the social media platforms. Mainstream media does not function like online and social media platforms.<\/p>\n

We do not publish first and verify later. We are bound by our ethical responsibility to tell the truth and publish verifiable information. Our role therefore is very significant for verified and accurate information, and that is largely where we are dependant on government coming to the fore with information, instead of playing hide and seek.<\/p>\n

But, to get the truth from those who are entrusted with the role to inform the public, it was like pulling teeth, with everyone claiming ignorance. Yet, at the break of dawn the next day, there was suddenly a well prepared statement confirming \u2013 once more \u2013 what had been speculated upon the previous day.<\/p>\n

This is where government misses the point \u2013 completely.<\/p>\n

It is the thinking that the information will be released eventually \u2013 whenever. It is the thinking that there is no hurry to balance the information with what is already being spread. It is that things are normal, in such very difficult times. I find this to be very contemptuous of the public. The damage that is caused by allowing the falsehoods to spread, by standing by and watching as online platforms say what they will, and then coming out to clear the air is a strategy of the bygone era.<\/p>\n

Dialogue<\/b><\/p>\n

It just doesn\u2019t work anymore, and the sooner people learn this, then perhaps there will be hope for the future.<\/p>\n

This brings me to the point about the national dialogue. It is becoming clear also that there is a view that government believes the environment isn\u2019t conducive for us to come together and talk, which honestly is understandable. The prime minister said as much in parliament last week when he stated that the country would not be held at gunpoint to hold the dialogue. If that is the position, then that is well and truly fine, and perhaps a majority of the public will agree with this sentiment. But, again, this is the issue we are struggling with as a country \u2013 that this is only forced out of government when it could well be put out there so that we all know what the position is.<\/p>\n

What must be clear is that there are gaps in the communication and information that the public is fed and this gap creates the uncomfortable situation of uncertainty, from which opportunists and those pursuing their own agenda thrive.<\/p>\n

This gap is what is causing the noise. This gap is what the country has to stop, and it starts with putting information at public disposal, so that we all know what the truth is. It is time for Cabinet to treat the public with respect and understand that silence only serves the negative narrative, and that from it, it is losing the fight to keep this country safe.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Eswatini<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eswatini. You could say that in the wake of the latest cancellation of the SADC Summit (Plus Eswatini), we have been left scratching our heads as to the reasons for the summit to be postponed \u2013 and if it has anything to do with what has been published on the online platforms. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[234,248,249],"class_list":["post-9707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-eswatini","tag-eswatini"],"yoast_head":"\nNO LESSONS LEARNED - Eswatini<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You could say that in the wake of the latest cancellation of the SADC Summit (Plus Eswatini), we have been left scrat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NO LESSONS LEARNED\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You could say that in the wake of the latest cancellation of the SADC Summit (Plus Eswatini), we have been left scrat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eswatini\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-25T14:05:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-25T14:34:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/sites\/33\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_15-62dea9c9e3e96.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"409\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"NO LESSONS LEARNED\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-25T14:05:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-25T14:34:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned\"},\"wordCount\":1501,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/sites\/33\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_15-62dea9c9e3e96.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Eswatini\",\"Eswatini\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eswatini\/all-news\/no-lessons-learned\",\"name\":\"NO LESSONS LEARNED - 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