Grahamstown is singing goodbye to Grocott's Mail Citizen Journalism Editor, Kwanele Butana. The young newshound is leaving the City of Saints, which is also his home town, for Cape Town, where he will be a senior reporter on the Cape Times.
Grahamstown is singing goodbye to Grocott's Mail Citizen Journalism Editor, Kwanele Butana. The young newshound is leaving the City of Saints, which is also his home town, for Cape Town, where he will be a senior reporter on the Cape Times.
Born in KwaGungqa Farm, a few kilometres east of Grahamstown, Butana moved with his family to Grahamstown in 1991. Affectionately known by many of his friends and colleagues as “Kwaan” – also his stage name in his poetry and hip-hop performances – he joined Grocott's Mail in June 2006 as a municipal affairs reporter.
In that beat, he showed his sharpness in news-hunting, before being promoted to Citizen Journalism Editor, in 2009. He wrote stories that sparked debates, stirred anger and raised awareness about the way things were done in the Makana Municipality. Some of his interesting stories include one in 2007 about the Auditor General's report, where the municipality was given a disclaimer.
This so angered the then municipal manager Pravin Naidoo that he wrote a letter to the editor and stopped the municipality from advertising in Grocott's for six months. Another story was about a local traffic officer, who was moonlighting, running a driving school.
After Butana wrote about this, the traffic officer resigned from his job to focus on his driving school. In 2008 Butana won the national Sanlam Community Press Award as the Best Local Government Affairs Reporter of the year.
Last month Butana was finishing his five years' service at Grocott's Mail. Butana is well known for his poetry and hip-hop performances that focus on social issues such as poverty, service delivery, politics and education.
His activities in Grahamstown also include being a member of Picture Perfect, a music duo with his friend, Lolita Petros; being chairperson of the School Governing Body at Good Shepherd Primary School and hosting a cultural affairs show on Radio Grahamstown on Saturdays, where he discussed Xhosa customs.
His friends, colleagues and former bosses have all wished him good luck and expressed their sincere thanks to him for his good work. “We are releasing him with open hearts. He must go to greener pastures, because he has done a lot for us,” said Radio Grahamstown station manager Phumlani Wayi.
Grocott's Mail general manager Steven Kromberg said Butana was a great asset. “I am sad that he is leaving, but at the same time I am glad that he is advancing,” he said. Makana Municipality spokesperson, Thandy Matebese, who worked a lot with Butana when he was a municipality affairs reporter, also wished him good luck.
“Even though we had bitter differences while working together, we still respected each other, and I wish him all the best,” said Matebese. Butana will join the Cape Times as a Senior Reporter from Monday.
