Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) multi-award winning reporter Bangwe Navile, best known for developmental reporting has shocked many after revealing a musical talent that many never knew he possesses.
Well, the reporter has just released his debut song called “Umuko” ci-Bemba for (in-law) a brilliant piece of music with an accompanying video.
Even before learning who produced the track, I simply concluded that the single is well-mastered.
There is so much talent that has not been exposed and Bangwe’s piece attests to that fact.
Produced by the veteran musician Moses Sakala of the Sakala Brothers fame, the umuko can simply be described as brilliant, easy to listen to music that is promising of better things to come from the artiste.
Recently Mark Ziligone, another reporter from the same institution released a sold-out track simply entitled Junta.
On the other hand, Zambia will in the next few weeks be hosting a high-profile continental soccer tournament to determine the best African U-20 national team.
This is a very important event that really needs good and serious publicity for the benefit of the host country and the business community.
However, it is disappointing to say the least that publicity of this important soccer showpiece is way below par.
This surely goes to the local television stations and the local organising committees for the championship who have clearly failed to sell the championship to the general public and corporate world.
There are no proper updates on television especially ZNBC on the countdown of the show especially that they are not screening the AFCON live.
To say the least, this is very disappointing as television stations could have seized this rare opportunity to make extra cash and merely fulfil their obligation of informing the public.
The only advert I have seen so far on the national broadcaster for the junior championship can be described as a disappointment since it lacks creativity.
Let me take you back to 2010 when South Africa hosted the world Cup finals for the first time on the African soil.
The hosting of the tournament was coupled with massive advertisement that whetted the appetite of the people who attended leaving an indelible mark in the rainbow nation in terms of infrastructure development, business and just raising the profile of the country that is better than some countries in Europe.
Describing the poor advert that I saw on ZNBC, one would mistake it for a single game advert. It is as if it is announcing that Zambia will be playing Egypt on 26th  February.
Where are the creative advert script writers who would have by this time collaborated well with the Ministry of Tourism and Arts to come up with quality work?
Where are the creative musicians and actors, who also seem to have gone in a sleeping mode at this critical time?
Anyway, I would not lump the blame on the television stations entirely but the local organising committee which seems to be failing lamentably in working with the available local television channels.
One would even wonder if at all it is the issue of underfunding which I strongly believe is the case.
But whatever is the case, the only poor advert seen so far on ZNBC cannot even cost more than K20, 000.
Now today almost everyone will be glued to the television set to witness the crowning of the new African soccer champions.
Although Zambia did not qualify to take part in this tournament, people will be interested to see which team will triumph.
It is hoped that for the sake of the finale, ZNBC will show this particular game live for the sake of the masses that may not have access to a pay television.
Actually, part of the K3:00 TV levy could be used to screen this final game on the national broadcaster.
However, the world of champion SuperSport on DStv has given the full coverage of the entire tournament in a very impressive manner.
The match build-up and post-march analysis have always added flavour to the whole tourney.
Those connected to DStv have no worries maybe except for the unforeseen issue of load-shedding.
This is why this platform is appealing to Zesco management to consider not to load-shed for the three hours of the final AFCON game.
All the best to the two teams!
We end here today but with the poor publicity of the U-20 games we can only pray that this will be a successful tournament that will keep millions glued to TV.  For comments please text 0974 372181 or 0962215687 email samphiri77@gmail.com.