While the end of the year and the beginning of the festive season generally makes people more relaxed and inclined to say nice things about each other, it is also a time for doing all those last minute things, like having one final rant at the expense of our government departments.
I often wonder whether the people in charge of the various departments we journalists are required to deal with are just hopeless at their jobs, or if they actually have some kind of a hidden agenda.
For example, the Department of Communications (DoC), if you take its name literally, should be the most open and contactable government agency in the country.
The reality, of course, is something completely different. Apart from one or two exceptions, I have yet to be able to get hold of anyone in that department when comment is urgently required from them for a story.
And it is not simply a matter of calling and leaving a message for someone who does not ever get back to you either. The DoC has an annoying habit of not answering their phones at all. If, by some miracle, you do get through, your call is usually transferred to an extension that simply keeps ringing until you tire and hang up. No-one answers and the call is never routed back to the switchboard so you can at least ask for someone else or leave a message (even if you know no one will ever return the call).
Worse still is the fact that if, by chance, you have a cell phone number for the person you are seeking, they inevitably will not answer, and (I wonder if it`s some bizarre DoC policy) no-one - and I mean no-one - has a voicemail option on their cell phone, it just keeps ringing until it eventually rings off.
Conspiracy theory
Is it purely misunderstanding and incompetence, or is it a carefully conceptualised conspiracy?
Rodney Weidemann, journalist, ITWeb
Which brings me to the second part of what is increasingly beginning to look like some kind of a conspiracy theory: Why does our government insist on making announcements that are of critical importance to the industry press at the most inconvenient times?
Once again, I`m not sure if it`s a simple matter of government being clueless as to the needs of the industry (which - considering it is the government - is a perfectly reasonable explanation) or if it is the opposite side of the coin, that they do know exactly what they are doing.
I do find it interesting that an announcement as important to the industry as the finalisation of the tenders for the GautengOnline project was only made public at 4.45pm last Friday - at a time when most of the industry`s journalists are already in the pub or on their way home.
Looking back to the announcement that Nkenke Kekana was to leave the government and take up a high level position at Telkom, guess when that was announced? Yes, at 4.45pm on the Thursday afternoon preceding the Easter Weekend.
Then, of course there is my personal favourite, the ongoing saga of the second network operator (SNO). We have the possibility that - should the DoC finally get something right and on time - the 51% stakeholder will still be announced this year.
Ivy stated that the DoC would make an announcement within eight weeks. Well, eight weeks from the time she said this puts us in the final week of the year, meaning the announcement may come sometime between Christmas and New Year.
And naturally, just about every journalist worth their salt is away on leave at that point, which is traditionally the only quiet time the industry has, so it is the only time we have to relax.
Thus we return to the question, is it purely misunderstanding and incompetence, or is it a carefully conceptualised conspiracy?
You`ll have to make up your own minds - I can`t answer that as a group of large men dressed in black suits and shades have arrived and - citing "National Security" - insist that I accompany them.
Just watch for the news of my arrest/disappearance to be announced at 4.45pm on a Friday!
Best wishes for the festive season to all our readers and remember: it`s the Season of Goodwill, so give generously to those less fortunate than you (donations of brains, skills or good timepieces can be forwarded to the DoC offices in Pretoria).
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