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Thursday 21 October 2010

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH

I offer this report in its entirety from the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper. It speaks volumes about the priorities of Swazi journalists.


No tea but Steers lunch box


MBABANE – The usual tea and biscuits after a meeting or press conference at government ministries was not witnessed yesterday.


Journalists were taken by surprise after a press conference that was called by the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Macford Sibandze, when they were each served with a lunch box meal from the popular food outlet, Steers, and a bottle of fruit juice.


After bidding farewell to the journalists, his secretary asked the media to wait for a couple of minutes while she prepared something for them.


Most of the journalists anticipated that they would be served with tea and biscuits and politely declined, saying the temperatures were too hot for tea. The secretary quickly interjected and said it was actually not the ‘usual’ but something meaty.


After waiting for about 10 minutes, the journalists left the ministerial building with a lunch box meal and fruit juice bottle in hand, saying the wait was worth their while.

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