Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is delighted to award a GLAD[1] to TimesLIVE for its article, “School pupils forcibly demand to address Ramaphosa at Vaal imbizo” (12/08/2022) which highlights an imbizo during which pupils tried to seize the opportunity to explain to the President the difficulties they encounter in their school and on a daily basis. The GLAD is awarded because the article includes the children’ voices.
The article is written by Amanda Khoza and reports of an imbizo which was part of the countrywide presidential roadshow which President Ramaphosa started in March. The imbizo reported in the story happened in the Vaal (Gauteng) and the purpose was to listen to communities’ concerns about service delivery.
According to the article, the learners were denied the right to speak by the department of basic education minister, Angie Motshekga because at the time, they were meant to be in school. However, the journalist then took the decision to interview the learners on the side-lines of the event to request their opinions, a move MMA commends
In the article, Tshiamo Shopo, a pupil at Botebo-Tsebo Secondary School is quoted saying, “We feel neglected and our right to freedom of speech was trampled on. They are not taking into consideration our feelings because these problems also affect us.”
The journalist also interviewed Grade 11 pupil, Musa Lelosa who says, “Since we had no electricity, we have experienced multiple break-ins at the school, including vandalism of our generator.”
Grade 12 pupil, Bongani Ntshumayelo is also quoted saying, “I wanted to tell the president that we have had an issue with electricity at school. It was switched off when there was a shutdown in the area last June.”
The journalist must be commended for interviewing the children and giving them the opportunity to speak out. Such an effort by the journalist and TimesLIVE could help to increase the number of media stories on children with children’s voices. A recent media monitoring report[2] by MMA on coverage of children revealed that children’s voices in the media stood at 7% in 2021.
The journalist highlights the real-life situation that learners face when they go to school and the lack of service delivery facing the area. Such reporting can potentially push policy makers to fix the problems.
MMA congratulates Amanda Khoza and TimesLIVE for reporting that promotes children’s rights to participation and speech. We encourage the journalist and the publicationto continue reporting on stories about children and afford children opportunities to make their voices heard especially when in the children’s best interests.
Written by Jacques Ndong
Edited by Lister Namumba
[1] A GLAD is awarded to the media for reporting on children where the children are accessed etc
[2] https://mediamonitoringafrica.org/wordpress22/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Childrens-Report-2021.pdf