Frustrated about NBC Tswana Service

LISTENERS of the NBC Setswana Service have been complaining on air since last year about the poor quality of programme content and the quality of some of the presenters employed at the Setswana Radio Service.

However, the manager of the station does not seem to care. Early this year he sort of tried to respond, but he failed totally to address the core of the complaints.He was very defensive and made statements to the effect that listeners had to understand that the service was still a child that was learning to crawl.That was really amazing.After more than 21 years, the manager of the service still tries to shoot down complaints by remarking that the service is a child.What sort of child is this? Is it a moron? I hope you will excuse my language, but I cannot not put it in a more polite way.I am just trying to put things into perspective.I wonder whether any other indigenous radio services are also still experiencing teething problems after more than 21 years of broadcasting.Actually, some of the complaints were triggered by the resignation of some very outstanding presenters and the employment of some new presenters.Towards the end of April last year, a certain gentleman joined the NBC’s Setswana service.This gentleman can hardly speak Setswana – some pre-primary kids would beat him hands-down.To illustrate my point, this gentleman has never – since his employment as a presenter – read a full news bulletin.Apparently, he is being trained since last year to translate the news from English into Setswana and to read it.If this gentleman could speak Setswana – as one would expect a radio presenter to be able to do – it would not have been necessary to spend more than a year on training him.The truth is that this presenter is incompetent.He is not fluent in Setswana, and struggles to express himself.We, the listeners would like to know why the NBC employs such incompetent people? Or is it just for the Setswana service? Furthermore, what are the qualifications required of radio presenters? Who decided that an applicant for a position is fluent in that particular indigenous language? Or, according to the NBC’s criteria, what amounts to being fluent in a particular language? Is there no uniform system of testing the linguistic ability of all new indigenous language presenters? Whoever does the selection is doing listeners of this radio station a great disservice.So-called presenters are struggling to express themselves in a language they are supposed to be fluent in.The linguistic competence of this particular presenter is so low and his knowledge of Setswana so rudimentary that he tries to make up for his incompetence by constructing the most ungrammatical phrases and sentence constructions ever, not to mention his pronunciation.Frankly, he would be a headache to any grammar teacher.Moreover, any Setswana-speaking person who has had some decent schooling or is an accomplished mother tongue speaker would say that this gentleman is definitely not radio material.If he was an English language presenter, he would have been booted out long ago.To give you an idea of how bad things have got, last year one of the presenters read the news in Setswana at one o’clock.The main news item was the Caprivi secessionist trial and the controversy surrounding it.That was the same day on which this case was postponed until this year.Well, according to the news reader, there were three judges in the Caprivi trial, there was the prosecuting judge (instead of saying prosecutor) there was the defending judge (defence lawyer) and there was the presiding judge.Imagine the confusion.People were totally dumbstruck.This particular news reader most probably does not know the difference between a judge and a lawyer and the difference between a lawyer and a prosecutor.I had to tune to the English bulletin to get the correct version.There are appropriate terms in Setswana for judge, lawyer and prosecutor but this news reader misinterpreted the terms.Also some of the presenters incorrectly refer to the prosecutor general as chief justice.My understanding is that the prosecutor general is the chief prosecutor, not a judge, he does not judge cases.He goes to court to prosecute people or decides who should be prosecuted.This again demonstrates how shallow some of these presenters are.Actually, when some of them read the news you can never be sure of what you have heard, you always have to tune into the English or Afrikaans news bulletin to get the correct version.If basic terms like these confuse them, then these guys do not really understand the English that they are translating into Setswana.Or is it that their Setswana is not up to scratch? Finally, not all is doom and gloom.Some of the presenters are really excellent, they have good voices, are fluent, and have very pleasant faces as presenters, especially Conrad, Marina and Sima.In conclusion, I would like to ask the manager of the radio services; how does it come that incompetent presenters like these are employed by the NBC? I would appreciate immediate action to investigate the complaints raised in this letter.We are tired of complaining and being ignored.Anonymous Windhoek Via e-mailEarly this year he sort of tried to respond, but he failed totally to address the core of the complaints. He was very defensive and made statements to the effect that listeners had to understand that the service was still a child that was learning to crawl. That was really amazing. After more than 21 years, the manager of the service still tries to shoot down complaints by remarking that the service is a child. What sort of child is this? Is it a moron? I hope you will excuse my language, but I cannot not put it in a more polite way. I am just trying to put things into perspective. I wonder whether any other indigenous radio services are also still experiencing teething problems after more than 21 years of broadcasting. Actually, some of the complaints were triggered by the resignation of some very outstanding presenters and the employment of some new presenters. Towards the end of April last year, a certain gentleman joined the NBC’s Setswana service. This gentleman can hardly speak Setswana – some pre-primary kids would beat him hands-down. To illustrate my point, this gentleman has never – since his employment as a presenter – read a full news bulletin. Apparently, he is being trained since last year to translate the news from English into Setswana and to read it. If this gentleman could speak Setswana – as one would expect a radio presenter to be able to do – it would not have been necessary to spend more than a year on training him. The truth is that this presenter is incompetent. He is not fluent in Setswana, and struggles to express himself. We, the listeners would like to know why the NBC employs such incompetent people? Or is it just for the Setswana service? Furthermore, what are the qualifications required of radio presenters? Who decided that an applicant for a position is fluent in that particular indigenous language? Or, according to the NBC’s criteria, what amounts to being fluent in a particular language? Is there no uniform system of testing the linguistic ability of all new indigenous language presenters? Whoever does the selection is doing listeners of this radio station a great disservice. So-called presenters are struggling to express themselves in a language they are supposed to be fluent in. The linguistic competence of this particular presenter is so low and his knowledge of Setswana so rudimentary that he tries to make up for his incompetence by constructing the most ungrammatical phrases and sentence constructions ever, not to mention his pronunciation. Frankly, he would be a headache to any grammar teacher. Moreover, any Setswana-speaking person who has had some decent schooling or is an accomplished mother tongue speaker would say that this gentleman is definitely not radio material. If he was an English language presenter, he would have been booted out long ago. To give you an idea of how bad things have got, last year one of the presenters read the news in Setswana a
t one o’clock. The main news item was the Caprivi secessionist trial and the controversy surrounding it. That was the same day on which this case was postponed until this year. Well, according to the news reader, there were three judges in the Caprivi trial, there was the prosecuting judge (instead of saying prosecutor) there was the defending judge (defence lawyer) and there was the presiding judge. Imagine the confusion. People were totally dumbstruck. This particular news reader most probably does not know the difference between a judge and a lawyer and the difference between a lawyer and a prosecutor. I had to tune to the English bulletin to get the correct version. There are appropriate terms in Setswana for judge, lawyer and prosecutor but this news reader misinterpreted the terms. Also some of the presenters incorrectly refer to the prosecutor general as chief justice. My understanding is that the prosecutor general is the chief prosecutor, not a judge, he does not judge cases. He goes to court to prosecute people or decides who should be prosecuted. This again demonstrates how shallow some of these presenters are. Actually, when some of them read the news you can never be sure of what you have heard, you always have to tune into the English or Afrikaans news bulletin to get the correct version. If basic terms like these confuse them, then these guys do not really understand the English that they are translating into Setswana. Or is it that their Setswana is not up to scratch? Finally, not all is doom and gloom. Some of the presenters are really excellent, they have good voices, are fluent, and have very pleasant faces as presenters, especially Conrad, Marina and Sima. In conclusion, I would like to ask the manager of the radio services; how does it come that incompetent presenters like these are employed by the NBC? I would appreciate immediate action to investigate the complaints raised in this letter. We are tired of complaining and being ignored. Anonymous Windhoek Via e-mail