BTV is The Baws

Thulaganyo Jankey | Tuesday October 11, 2022 06:00

This was punted more times than I care to remember at the series of activations.

By storm?! While this remains a moot point for the time being, what followed immediately was three days of intense water-tank-melting heat, at least in the city. There has to be better coordination between the weatherman and Btv so that such messages resonate with the local environment.

If Btv had not been over-excited by the launch of the new channels, they would have in conjunction with the weather bureau used taglines like ‘Btv brings you Jojo-melting heat’ or something like ‘Btv, hotter than your hottest days’.

The whole outlook is more corporate unlike before when on Btv ads you would see people herding goats and processing corn the traditional way. I also hope that Btv signature tune Mmameeeee will be finally removed.

I understand there are people who like it. I am not one of them and the sooner it is trashed the better. Perhaps it is not that I don’t like it but just fatigued from it. But Mmameeeee is a battle-scarred survivor with nine lives like a cat.

There was a time it was halted briefly but came back again with even more regularity. There will be three channels. There’s a 24-hour news channel whose tagline implies and implores people to ‘trust us’. According to the Deputy PS, it ‘would broadcast kgotla meetings addressed by the President and Cabinet ministers, Parliament proceedings and major announcements’. Ok you have asked us to trust you but what about the kgotla meetings for MPs.

I have ambitions to represent my people and will probably get on board the batho ba re ke eme train, which will start chugging off in 2023.

So I want to be on that news channel so that I too can be seen promising people roads, bridges, schools, clinics and less caustic and less dangerous boyfriends. So 24-hour news channel, I too want to trust you and that means covering my political crusades. And then there was the line-up. Some of us were like kids in a candy store when we saw the electronic media heavyweights pop up.

Electronic media heavyweights is bombastic for people that can ask a very eminent person on TV a question like ‘You have been accused of embezzling public funds faster than Mobutu Sese Seko. What do you say to that?’ The mantra is editorial independence apparently and the new set of presenters have amongst them a few that just know how to stir a hornet’s nest. Editorial independence usually means journalists are left to their own devices and have the legal and corporate backing to ask anybody anything – including the colour of their undergarments - without getting a call from some hallowed office to explain themselves. ‘Explain themselves’ usually takes the form of termination and very soon you will meet the bewildered journalist at a fast food caravan restaurant jostling for bones with ordinary citizens. So that, according to the initial noises, will be a thing of the past and our editorially independent journalists will be having their lunches in the franchised restaurants in CBD.

Hopefully those legendary bloops that characterise Btv subtitles such as when Minister of Education, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe flashes on your screen and the caption says something like ‘Charma Gal, Gaborone United referee’ are a thing of the past. These legendary slips seemed to be choreographed on Broadway. We once had a white president courtesy of the caption man.

The late Lim Kok Win was instantly turned into a black man when he appeared on Btv news. This legend must be incentivised to retire. He cannot be part of the new order. He must just leave and I will personally volunteer to clear his desk and pay for the removal company. Btv has always seemed like a boom that never really exploded. There has always been a sense that it is caught in a time warp of sorts.

The expected industry around the advent of Btv seems to have been shackled by a lack of dynamism and a voracious appetite for western content despite the initial boast that it will be a stage for local content. It didn’t happen for locals. We hope this time it does. The big question though remains, where is Mothusi in all of this? (For comments, feedback and insults email inkspills1969@gmail.com) Thulaganyo Jankey is a training consultant who runs his own training consultancy that provides training in BQA- accredited courses. His other services include registering consultancies with BQA and developing training courses. Contact him on 74447920 or email ultimaxtraining@gmail.com