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Dead on air: How Tido’s exit killed off poor TBC

Wednesday August 29 2018
mhando

Tido Mhando, Tanzanian veteran broadcaster. PHOTO | FILE

By ELSIE EYAKUZE

In 2010, Tanzania held a general election. At the time, the media was exploring its freedoms and BBC Idhaa ya Kiswahili retiree Tido Mhando had been recruited by the state broadcaster to revamp it and drag it into the present.

Little did we know he had intentions for the coming election…

During the revamp, Mhando gathered a team of young people and veterans of the trade and he made full use of his advantage as head of the government outlet.

Whereas the private broadcasters were hobbled by the costs of covering such a vast country, TBC under Mhando was able to embed an admirable number of journalists with politicians of all parties who were campaigning.

Everybody got screen time, from the charming unknowns to the big guns.

By the time voting day came around and we were all glued to our screens for results, TBC had proved itself. The state broadcaster was trusted to give us local government and presidential voting numbers as close to real time as possible.

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The National Electoral Council had been thoroughly outgunned and overshadowed in terms of speed and credibility.

The Fourth Estate is a formidable and fundamental pillar of the democratic ideal.

I remember seeing the team of broadcasters and the crew and support staff all posing at the end of a gruelling 48 (or more) hours of coverage to sign off and thank us for watching. No, thank you.

In 2010, Tanzania had, for the first time ever, a public broadcaster of the people, by the people, for the people.

Spoiler alert: CCM won. A few months later, Mr Mhando was “offered” an “early retirement” by the government. Upsetting, but expected.

With the exit of Mhando, TBC predictably degenerated to its former level of comfortable mediocrity. It got rid of its young talent, including the groundbreaking Ze Komedy show.

Now it takes a patient viewer to figure out which shows are worth the bother. At least we still had the private stations to give us a healthy variety of coverage that allowed us to make up our own minds as consumers.

In roughly 2014/2015, Azam – yes, that Azam that makes your ice-cream, wheat flour and speed ferry rides to Zanzibar – decided to open a TV station.

Other wealthy private citizens and industrialists may run broadcast operations, but if we are talking size… well. Azam is Azam, full stop. They built a state-of-the-art studio in Dar es Salaam that is rumoured to be one of the best in the region. And then they hired none other than Tido Mhando to set up their newsroom as the 2015 election approached. Oh happy day.

The government may have deep pockets but there are also fussy rules and regulations and bureaucratic spiders occupying every dusty depressing corner of the sullen civil service.

Azam has both deep pockets and that unique private-sector thirst for success. Every other TV station had to do a makeover after Azam launched just to look like they were not stuck broadcasting from 1985.

As for why Azam chose to hire Tido Mhando after the government spat him out? Who knows, considering their carefully curated apolitical stance.

But I will leave you with this saying: “Chema chajiuza kibaya chajitembeza.

Elsie Eyakuze is a consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report. E-mail: [email protected]

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