One at the fifth annual Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalist (All Rights: Botswana US Embassy)
- Devine Diva makes her come-back to radio.
- Her dismissal at RB2.
With the increasing number of untalented folk in the radio industry many listeners have been left starving for real talent. The hungering members of this beloved country turned to their favourite social sites to enquire about the whereabouts of some of their favourite radio presenters. Legends who have taken a back seat due to many reasons. Dintshang News recently caught up with one particular legend, One Rabantheng, commonly known to her legions of fans as Devine Diva to find what she has been up to. In the interview, Rabantheng also talks about her unfair dismissal at RB2. Something which did not bring her down as she will making her come-back to radio on the adult radio station Gabz FM-96.2.
Please tell us about your journey since you left radio.
I left radio 7 years ago. I have, however, worked for e-Botswana and I have also worked at Duma-FM. But I left Duma-FM after the incident with Miso and I.
Please tell us what really happened on that day.
It was during the inauguration of the president and Miso and I were talking about the president. Nothing bad. We were just admiring him and unfortunately we didn’t know that the mic was on. After that incident they suspended our salary and afterwards they put us on half-pay. The conditions were a bit unbearable so I ended up resigning. Miso stayed for one more year and then she also resigned.
What did you say that was bad?
Nothing. We were just admiring the president. Re tlotla, re tlotla. The then PR for Botswana Police, Diphelo Motobi, also listened to the audio and he also said that he did not find anything wrong with it. I am sure that everyone who has ever worked on radio has left the mic on at some point.
Don’t people approach you on a daily basis asking why you are not radio?
They do. All the time. I just tell them that my contract expired. That I was on a contract and my contract expired.
But what does it take to be on the radio?
You have to love people to do it. It’s just so real. So if you enjoy a good old conversation then… What I have noticed is that people don’t have conversations any more. In combis, ques… Conversation is dying and radio is still the only place where conversation is still going on. Just human interaction.
Twitter and Facebook has made matters worse. People can sit next to each other and not talk. People don’t even say hello anymore. It is so difficult to resist the temptation to say Dumelang…but people don’t say it anymore.
How did you cope with the loss of your job at RB2?
It was very difficult. It was very very difficult. I don’t know if you really cope. So I can’t say I started doing this. You just grit your teeth and get on with life.
How does it feel to listen to the radio these knowing that you can do a better job than most people doing the work right now?
It’ll be an arrogant position to sit on and say that I am better than that. I do notice good talent and bad talent. Because I know radio, I am refined to have a very good ear to pick up mistakes. Sometimes it’s very painful to listen to the radio.
And the news-readers are not nearly as good as you.
It was almost a prestige to get to read the news. There are so many fine newsreaders. I am wondering where some of these quality newsreaders are especially on national radio. So I am always surprised to hear some of the things I hear.
Was it always your dream to work on the radio?
Interestingly, I imagined myself on radio way before I was on radio. But I want to explore other projects. So yeah, I have other dreams.
The projects.
I set up an advertising, marketing, promotions and video production company. And I am also a farmer. I am currently setting up my own farm. I have also just been doing a community drama project in Mochudi. Mochudi is where I stay. We worked on it for a year. We have put up demos and my wish is to see it on television one day. It’s interesting because it is just people and what’s amazing is that they can act. It took a whole year but it brought satisfactory results. I was leading them in the project but everyone contributed to it. And since I have experience in the industry I also wrote the script.
My wish is to see it getting filmed. Getting it bought. They have all done it out of love so far, so my wish is to see them getting money out of it.
Please tell us about what led to your dismissal at RB2.
It was a very long and very complicated story. I was employed by BTV right at the beginning of its airing. I was the Director and I was there when the first program was aired.
So I walked over to RB2 one day and asked them if I could contribute anything. I would start work at RB2 at 5am and finish at 9am. Then I would walk over to BTV and work till 9:30pm. At the time I did a little bit of studying so I asked for a study-leave. I continued to work on RB2 as a freelancer. It was in 2005 that the leave lapsed. I did not notice because I was having too much fun. One day one of the managers asked me to come to her office and told me that my leave has lapsed. After a couple of months she got transferred and the issue was left hanging. One day when I reported for work at RB2, Lesole Obonye was there and he told me that I could not work there that day and that I needed to go to the ministry.
I did that and they told me that I had been dismissed from public service because I had absconded from duty at BTV. Perplexed, I told them that I had not absconded. I was told that I had been sent a letter giving me notice about the issue. But the thing is that the letter was placed in the public mail room at work. I never receive mail and that place is disorderly so I never even used to go to the mail room. Since it was a letter of importance they should have given it to me directly. If someone had given me the letter, I could have used those 30 days to do something. So I asked them where it was and how I could fix the matter. I was advised by Ma Segwe, who told me that I just have to write a letter to the president asking for presidential pardon. After some back and forth I was told that my request was denied and the reason for the denial could not be discussed.
In 2010, I think it was my mother who pushed me to follow up on the matter. She actually started following up on the matter herself. I also started following the matter and I applied for a presidential pardon and this time it was approved. I decided I’d take it to Kaboyamodimo. I called him and in those three to four months I could not get an appointment to see him. I tried sending messages. That was in 2011. I just stopped looking and decided to carry on with my life. Otherwise, I could have been stuck trying to get an appointment.
How did you feel during all of this?
It was very hurtful to be told that I had absconded from duty when I was servicing the nation every morning on the radio. It was a legitimate and a very technical issue. So if they had let me follow the right path to fix things…
Beef
There was a point when working on the station was not great anymore. The people who seem to have been targeted were Anastasia, Gloria Kgosi, Lekoko and I. We were told that we were too old or getting too big for the station. All the signs of us getting dismissed were there and it did come to that at some point because Gloria, Lekoko and Anastasia were fired. It was tense. It was the least you could do to hold on to your job. Some of the comments we got we had to ignore. You just let them bounce off and carried on.
My original management was gone except for Lesole and the issues that made things tense did not involve him at all.
Do you have any idea why you couldn’t get an appointment with Kaboyamodimo?
He’s just a very busy man. I have no right to claim anything else other than he is a very busy man.
Is it Rabantheng or Thobega?
I was married for three years and then I got divorced. If I had known that it would be that short, I would never have changed my surname.
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