Year-end robs Malawi of media veterans

According to family members Nkolokosa died after a short illness due to stomach pains while Mita's journalist daughter Cheu, who is a section editor and columnist at Nation Publications Limited (NPL) said her father complained of chest pains before he died at Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in Blantyre.

Mita, an accomplished journalist

An equally accomplished journalist, BBC correspondent Raphael Tenthani described Mita as a veteran journalist and administrator, who was the late first Malawi president, dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda's last chief information officer taxed to defend a regime in the twilight of its three-decade uninterrupted rule.

From his position of information officer Mita worked as ministry of agriculture principal secretary. After retiring from the civil service he worked at former president Bakili Muluzi's charity as a director.

He then moved to private radio station Capital FM where he worked as director of news. Until his death he was the board chair for Muluzi's private radio station Joy FM.

Perhaps more bemused was the media fraternity with the death of Nkolokosa as both the Malawi Media Council (MCM) and the local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Malawi) released condolence statements.

MISA condolence message

MISA Malawi's condolence message to the fraternity on Nkolokosa's death describes him as "a fountain of knowledge and experience in the journalism fraternity".

"He will be remembered for his mastery of both the spoken and written English Language as well as his satirical writings," wrote Anthony Kasunda acting chairperson of MISA Malawi.

MCM where Nkolokosa was, until his death, a member of the Membership and Accreditation Committee (MAC) said in its condolence statement, signed by newly hired executive director Penelope Kakhobwe and chairperson Rev Patrick Semphere that they greatly miss Nkolokosa's invaluable contribution in this important committee.

"During his lifetime, Jika was a veteran journalist who distinguished himself as an outstanding professional journalist in the media fraternity, but also a fine writer - a skill rare among many journalists," the statement said.
It further stated that the media fraternity in Malawi has lost a journalist extraordinaire, with skills hard to replace.

Litany of accolades

Indeed Nkolokosa weaved a litany of accolades as a media practitioner; as a teacher and lecturer at secondary and university levels, as news editor and media manager at both the print and electronic media in the country.

Some of the places where Nkolokosa worked include: The Financial Post which was the country's first independent newspaper, the Nation Publications Limited (NPL) where he was editor of both daily The Nation and weekly Weekend Nation newspapers, Blantyre Newspapers Limited where he worked as the general manager.

He will be remembered by many for his satirical columns such as 'Tongue in Cheek' which he introduced while working at NPL and 'All I can Say' another newspaper column he introduced at BNL. At MIJ he started a radio opinion programme known as 'Closer Look' at the college FM radio station.