An interesting thing happened at the Southern African International Dialogue 2005 on Smart Partnership being held in Maseru as on the first day of business, heads of state and government met “eyeball to eyeball” with journalists, getting a turn to be the ones firing questions at the latter group. 

The Prime Minister of Malaysia Abdul Ahmad Badawi; Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka; Finance Minister Timothy Thahane; former Presidents Masire and Chissano, were among leaders firing questions at the media which were mostly about trust between the two.  

Journalists had for example to defend why corruption within their midst was never reported on. They agreed that there was some deep mistrust between government and the media and that there was a need to understand each other’s position.

10 November 2005