17 Apr 2018

“I loved journalism. It afforded me the opportunity to meet people, make new friends and it offered me a platform for exposure to new ideas,” such were David Modukanele’s words before we ended our telephone conversation on the evening of April 12.

While such is the nature of the profession where one gets paid for meeting interesting people and celebrities, it is so odd that Day had few or no friends at all.  Day’s ‘15 minutes of fame’, which many of his peers used to build new mental muscles and traverse the globe, was more akin to Isaac Makwala’s ‘200m race against time’ – so to speak.

Allow me to say he was a friendless scribe. Unlike the biblical David, he was never attracted to fame. This was David who many were fond of using sobriquets such as Make my Day, Omday, 16 Days, Day by Day or just Day to endear themselves to him.

He would turn down an offer for a lift home or work, preferring to walk alone. He was an island unto himself, always focused on his work, which he executed with much poise. While many of his colleagues would steal time discussing mundane issues in groups, what mattered most to Day was work, work, work and more work.

“David Modukanele is an amazing character. Ever since I have known Modukanele some 34 years ago, I have never heard him complaining of anything. He is a positive character.

Give him an assignment at anytime of the day, Modukanele will always be affirmative,” explains Information Services Acting Deputy Director, Epena Ngatangue.

Day spent his entire career in the Department of Information Services (From 09/06/84 – 31/03/18). He joined the public service in 1984 immediately after his Tirelo Sechaba elapsed.

Struck by lady luck, he felt privileged to have joined the then Department of Information and Broadcasting under the tutelage of former Debswana Head of Corporate Affairs, Esther Kanaimaba-Senai and Bank of Botswana Head of Communications, Andrew Sesinyi.

Young and inexperienced, he adds ‘the duo equipped us with journalism skills and after being thoroughly drilled the eight of us were deployed to different units; radio, Botswana Press Agency (BOPA) and DailyNews’.

Time for learning was over. The cub reporter found himself at a new workstation- DailyNews. In front of him were a ruler, a typewriter and a manila-sized piece of paper. “By then things were done manually using Comp Edit system and my daily duties included, but were not limited to designing pages, inserting pictures and measuring stories.”

At that moment, Day came to meet Rreemang Rankokwane, who was in charge of DailyNews staff drop off after work.

Rankokwane describes the scribe as smart, reason being that he talked less and never complained. Not even a single day the driver ever heard Day complaining of being dropped off last. “One of those long days I suggested to drop him home first. Because the team was dominated by ladies,  they refused,” and to cut the long story short, Day responded, “Ee go siame, mma a lo ise pele.”

Despite being described as quiet and a loner, lady luck once again located him; in 1992 the department sent him to pursue a Diploma in Journalism at Loyalist College of Arts and Applied Technology in Canada. Upon completing his studies, Day got an opportunity to sharpen his feature writing skills with Kutlwano Magazine but it was a short stint because after only a year, he was transferred back to where he started his journalism career - DailyNews. In 1998 he got another chance to further his studies at Rhodes University in South Africa, this time graduating with a degree. Upon completion in 2001, he was posted to head Selebi Phikwe Office before heading to Molepolole, where he served on a bigger capacity as a Bureau Chief.

This time around, Rankokwane, who had also been transferred to Molepolole office, had an opportunity to work with him again. Despite holding a higher post, he still remained the same old Day, always quiet, friendly, disciplined, content with what he had, not power hungry and never opened up about his personal life.

Being such a character, Rankokwane lamented that people took advantage of his weaknesses and ill-treated him.

It was after all these years of working with Day that Rankokwane got to know the other side of Day. That was the first and last time Day was seen fuming after he was engaged in a fracas with Kweneng deputy district commissioner, who threatened to re-possess a staff house that Day was supposed to be occupying, reason being that he took too long to move in.

In 2010 he was given a privilege to rejoin Kutlwano Magazine as a Setswana Editor and his stay lasted for only 12 months before reuniting with his DailyNews team.

In 2011, the then director, Russ Molosiwa saw the need to establish a Setswana desk and Motlalepula Mokgadi was named the driver of the project. Given his wide ranging expertise and experience in reporting and sub-editing, Mokgadi never flinched to pull Day to her side.

“Apart from having passion and a good command of written English and Setswana, Day, unlike other journalists, never frowned on his mother tongue. I had learnt that Day and I were somehow alike; we don’t believe that using Setswana in the work place does not show backwardness or that one was somehow lacking as far as the use of the queen’s language is concerned.” The Setswana desk was born and Mokgadi echoes Ngatangue’s sentiments that irrespective of the amount of work that was sometimes ‘piled’ on Day, he never complained – not once.

“I think his dedication and positive attitude was one of the factors that gave management confidence to increase DailyNews Setswana pages from two to three”, Mokgadi said. 

When Setswana basket was in short supply of fresh copy, instead of complaining about the reporters’ laxity, Day would rather opt to translate stories. More often than not, the two-man Setswana desk was tasked with translating the English version of the State of the Nation Address and Budget Speech to Setswana.

“Translating the budget speech is one such daunting task because financial concepts are foreign to Setswana so much that we do not even have names or words to describe them.

That is when I realised I could rely on Day because he was well read and understood the concepts better. More over, Day was patient and never judged me for seemingly knowing ‘nothing’ about issues of finances. Today I pride myself to have mastered the art of translation through Day.”

‘A rare breed’ is how many of his colleagues describe him, given the tenacity he always displayed in a work place where daily operations were fulfilled in an unforgiving environment.

“I know of some of his supervisors who would be ashamed or feel pity to assign him because of his botho,” adds Ngatangue.

Though he seems to be a quiet person, amazingly, Ngatangue, like Rankokwane, appears to have been lucky enough to have had a chance to see Day’s rare moments of being angry.

Surprisingly, Ngatangue explains that when given a platform, Day would talk endlessly.

He says he is one person who can narrate anything and everything, even his deepest secrets if he happened to have confidence in an individual. “I would sometime cut him short when I realised that some things were too personal for my liking. But if you want to know his mettle in journalism, start a topic along the lines of his profession, otlaa mo itse.”

For Aobakwe Molefhi, a reporter who met Day when he was redeployed to Kutlwano in 2009, he has lost ‘a whole dictionary’. Upon hearing of Day’s departure, Molefhi called all the way from Tsabong and cried, “How do you expect us to go on without our Setswana dictionary, Day was our reference point and we (reporters) were confident that whenever we needed to verify any Setswana word, expression or idiom, Day was there for us.”

All said, at the age of 55, Make my Day, Omday, 16 Days, Day by Day or just Day sheathes his pen to pursue farming, a trade most of us only salivate for, but are never brave enough to part ways with our 9-5 to pursue. ENDS