In this I had used the words of Tom Stoppard who said, “I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon”. And indeed, it does do that for those whose lives you touch.
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Working at Lowvelder can never compare to any other job as it is not a job but for those who have a calling. Unfortunately globally, this profession does not pay well. But your life will never be richer in adventure. If anything, it is like living in a movie. Oh, and the movies are action, drama and comedy.
Over the years I have had the privilege of working with some top-notch police investigators who I personally think are finer than any other police officers in the country. Yet I could be biased, but I doubt it. I have also worked closely with security companies and their officers who are dedicated to helping others.
I have met some interesting characters like Paul O’Sullivan, and a CIA agent, and some of our very own homegrown spies.
There have been hilarious moments. In 2012 I was following police and a suspect who was going to point out the body he had dumped in a river. Now I am much shorter than the men I was following, but I forgot this. So when they jumped over a part of the river where the body was lying, I fell next to the decomposing corpse. I arrived home smelling of the newly departed which got me thrown out the house and my mother handling a water hose like an expert fireman on me.
Another time, I had mistakenly given the telephone number of my cousin in Durban who shared the same name as a fellow journalist in the office to an inmate in Barberton Prison. She phoned me in a complete panic to say a strange man phoned her from prison saying he was in jail for armed robbery and could she help him. Needless to say she was not impressed.
Once I had to hear the confession of an arsonist at a local Wimpy. Of course everybody in the Wimpy that morning happened to be a police officer having breakfast coincidentally.
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Any journalist today working in any publication will know the struggle it is to keep people informed and to get the information as factual as possible in the least amount of time. But if there is a will, there is a way. I did this by managing to get to Mozambique in April just after Cyclone Idai had hit.
I could finally make a huge difference and a much-needed one for the people directly affected. Those experiences and memories of the incredible people I met during my trip could fill a book.
Saying goodbye is never easy, especially after you have spent nearly a decade working as a journalist. But times change and I have found that I need to move on.
I did not choose an easy time to change careers to sales as economically the country has gone into the proper “junk” status, but I decided to believe in myself and rely on the fact, that if I took the same passion and drive I used in my journalism and applied it to sales, I would make a killing.
So for the younger generation that intend to make journalism a career, get ready for a rollercoaster ride
