COMPARISONS have been made about the interviewing abilities of Costa Mwansa and Grevazio Zulu, particularly on The Sunday Interview and The Assignment television programmes on Muvi TV and ZNBC respectively.
During the past week, I got inundated with mail talking about the comparison between the two in the wake of how the two programmes panned out last Sunday when they featured Dora Siliya on Muvi TV and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) acting Chief Executive Officer David Ng’andu.
I desist from using this platform to rate the two gentlemen but I know for a fact that conclusions may have been about them without bearing in mind so many aspects that come into play during an interview.
These range from the person being interviewed, the topic of the interview, the language being used and even the house style of the station under whose umbrella the interview is being done considering which line to tow.
This may sound too technical for a layman but my colleagues in newsrooms know how we always rate sources of news on the scale of those who like listening to their voice and those you literary have to squeeze information out of.
So the point I am making here is that while Grevazio has come under heavy criticism for the way he handled the interview with Mr Ng’andu, people should also appreciate the complexity of the matter at hand before giving him too much flak.
As if the mining jargon is not confusing enough, other issues surrounding how mining firms declare their profits or losses factoring in the operational costs and mineral royalties can be a mouthful even for a seasoned anchor.
It becomes an effort to shuttle between the prepared script and the follow up questions based on the answers given.
The interview takes turns and twists where the interviewer starts answering questions instead of asking them. We have all been there before, haven’t we?
I remember mentioning in this column how Grevazio got the best out Vice -President Guy Scott where others have failed.
Dr Scott has been a subject of points of order in Parliament over what opposition Members of Parliament say is the tendency of dodging of questions.
On the other hand, an upset Dora Siliya does not need too much encouragement to speak her mind out. Infact, she only needs one question to give you enough data to write a voluminous story.
In short, I feel it is unfair to use last Sunday’s programme to rate the two anchors of the highly anticipated programmes. On their day, they have both cowed even the most revered interviewees using the Gerry Nel line of probing questions.
Nevertheless, I intend to use all the messages I got on the comparison between Costa and Grevazio in next week’s column.
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Never before has the sacking of a coach been received with so much support as David Moyes’ firing by Manchester United. The millions of global supporters of the United brand just had enough of the Scot.
For a man who dubiously broke all the records that Sir Alex Ferguson had labouriously set including turning Old Trafford from a respected fortress into the laughing stock at which even the wee teams collected points, Moyes’ ending was inevitable.
But it is the lukewarm coverage of sports by our stations that worries me most. Even the sacking of Moyes which was the lead story and was going viral everywhere on the social media did not move others into giving it the prominence it deserved.
Just to put into perspective why United fans are this happy with Moyes’ sacking, he has overseen United’s worst ever Premier League points tally, worst league home form in over a decade, failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League since 1995.
Uder him, United also suffered three defeats in a row for the first time since 2001, first ever first minute goal conceeded to rivals Manchester City, first time Everton, Man City and Liverpool have beaten United home and away in the Premier league era.
In fact, it was the first time Everton have beaten United home and away since the 1960/79 season and it was the first home defeat to Newcastle United since 1972.
I also did not understand the wisdom of showing a dead rubber English Premier League match between Newcastle and Swansea at a time Nkana was drawing with Club Athletique Bizertin of Tunisia in the CAF Confederations Cup.
How it would have been nice to televise the match between the KK11 and the Chipolopolo squad of 1994/96 which was at Nkoloma stadium in honour of Kenneth Kaunda’s 90th birthday. For some reason, I got so many questions on whether the game was going to be live.
Understandably, the Moyes sacking broke out almost at the same time as the demise of legendary soccer commentator Dennis Liwewe.
So many superlatives have already been used to describe the late Dennis. By the way, I am not being disrespectful of the ‘Voice of Zambian football,’ he preferred to be called by his first name which sits well with my journalism profession.
All the people who interacted with Dennis will recall how he used football language to talk about literary anything. Dennis spoke of his success in everything he touched as if he was reciting a novel but that was just him.
I personally met Dennis on several occasions in my formative years as a journalist and during my sports reporting years when he would always encouraged me to seek excellence in everything I do.
My own transition from watching soccer on television and listening to Dennis on radio was an interesting one. As a small boy, we all preferred to mute the volume on the television set to listen to Dennis’ commentaries on radio.
Later in life, I had to sit in the press box in the stadium to interpret the game for readers and only then did I realise how talented Dennis was to muster names of players, distances and other flash points without the benefit of a replay.
Who did not learn the angles from Dennis. The 360 degrees players would turn when dribbling according to him or the diagonal passes that left defenders for dead.
So long comrade Dennis Liwewe. Here is an interesting email I pulled out of the mailbag
I have heard Innocent Kalaluka on several occasions misleading  us with his television commentaries on Super Sport.
I have never heard television commentators using words like ‘Wele. ‘The word ‘Wele’ is not in the English vocabulary. It sounds so misleading for people watching Super Sport to understand.
Innocent should just say it’s a goal, it’s behind the net, the striker has just slotted the ball into the net instead of ‘Wele.’  Again, last time it was confusing during a match when Innocent and Franklin Tembo Junior contradicted each other.
Franklin had put it correctly that Jimmy Ndhlovu of Power Dynamos had scored but Innocent instead of repeating what FTJ had said, he went on to say Jimmy Chisenga who is a Red Arrows player. Jason Dube and Franklin Tembo are so far so good as far as the commentary box is concerned.
Now where is Matimba Nkonje, my lovely commentator?  Please ba Innocent learn from Mark Gleeson, Dennis Liwewe, Dominic Chimanyika including Macha Chilemena, these are people to emulate.
Regards, Julius
For comments manchishi@gmail.com