By Zweli Martin Dlamini

It is very unfortunate that,once again,we have found ourselves trying to correct controversial Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo for unprofessional conduct after he systematically attacked State organs.

After the death of the tourist who was ‘killed’ by a Government bus at Hawane on Tuesday, the office of the Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo first tried to downplay the matter by claiming the tourist was “relatively stable in hospital and awaiting to be airlifted to his home country”.

But on Friday, the same office confirmed the death of the tourist and instead of apologizing unconditionally, Alpheous Nxumalo systematically tried to blame other State organs for providing inaccurate information about the matter to his office.

Being a Government Spokesperson means you are the voice of the Government or the State, the whole communication system is centered around you.

A voice is a product of the mouth, tongue and teeth among other parts of the body, if the tongue is sick and comprises the quality of the voice, the owner of the whole body must treat the system to produce quality.

Imagine a voice saying “I can’t speak properly because of a missing teeth when the same voice has the power to say “take me to hospital to fix the teeth so that I can speak properly”.

As a Public Relations Officer(PRO) you don’t expose the weaknesses of your internal systems, Alpheous Nxumalo was supposed to take the blame on behalf of his subordinates and then deal with the matter internally.

Like in the newsroom, when an inexperienced journalist commits a blunder, the editor and the newspaper must apologize and then fire or correct the journalist, the editor cannot shift the blame to his or her subordinates.

Government Departments have many PROs but a final statement confirming the position of the State on certain matters is released by Alpheous Nxumalo.

Therefore, it is Nxumalo who must establish systems that verify information before releasing a statement and where a blunder has been committed, he must welcome the criticism.

The office of the Government Spokesperson has been twisting information and disseminating propaganda all these years, where the propaganda becomes obvious, Nxumalo must find a way to mitigate the damage not to shift blame.