The role of spokesperson is a pressured job and the hours are also long. But the pay doesn’t match the workload, especially in the public sector. However, spokespersons don’t do it for money, but for the love of the work.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing it.
The other day, former journalist and government communicator, Selby Bokaba, made a point about spokespersons at local government level.
Selby, who is a spokesperson for Tshwane, said communicators at municipal level work hard but are the least recognised. I share the sentiment.
National and provincial communicators are in the public eye. They also have the necessary support structure such as researchers, speech writers, editors and so on. That allows them (national and provincial spokespersons) to focus on the job at hand: communicating.
On the other side, local government spokespersons don’t have the support structure that other government spheres have. So, they do everything.
They research, write speeches, edit and deal with the media. It’s a hard slog. The above reminds me of the Mogale City spokesperson, Nkosana Zali.
Nkosana is a workaholic and pays attention to detail. He is also one of the longest serving spokespersons in Mogale City. That should say something about him. The Mogale City spokesperson is media shy, soft-spoken and talks less.
He lets his work speak for him. Nkosana, who is also an author (he has two books to his name), is one of the best communicators this country has ever produced. But he remains unrecognised because he is at local level. This supports Selby’s point.
