I don’t know the answer to that…

ABOUT JOHN

John Perlman is a radio presenter for 702, where he hosts The John Perlman Show, a weekday programme between 3pm and 6pm. Perlman previously hosted Today with John Perlman on Kaya FM, and co-hosted AM Live and the After 8 Debate on the SAfm radio station on SABC. Perlman is the founder and CEO of The Dreamfields Project, an NGO which provides football and netball equipment, coaching and league programmes for primary school children in South Africa’s townships and rural areas. He has a BA in History, African Politics and Southern Sotho, and a BA Honours in Development Studies.

I Have used “I don’t know the answer to that,” when discussing the pros and cons of restriction of alcohol. It has popped out when talking to a friend about the wisdom of closing the beaches for summer. It has come up as reliably as a load shedding announcement whenever I’ve engaged in debates about the balance – always searched for, never quite struck – between protecting life and preserving livelihoods.

And if I think about it, this new habit has old roots. I have long believed that curiosity and uncertainty are the journalist’s sharpest tools. When giving talks at journalism schools I have always said: “If you aren’t curious and sometimes confused you are on the wrong track. There is not much of value at the end of the six-lane highway to certainty. And the scenery along the way is not very interesting either. Don’t be desperate for conclusions. Keep asking questions.”

The real power of news and talk radio is not, in my view, when we come up with answers. Radio is at its most powerful when we come up with better questions. And that has never been more important than over this past year of Covid-19 and economic catastrophe, of fear and uncertainty and unreleased grief.

It’s not to say that you can never get answers, so don’t bother asking. You can. And we do. Some things can be established with certainty.

But the huge challenges that we face, like delivering economic justice and economic growth, demand that we never settle back with the answer, never unreservedly sign up for the plan. This is not a call for cynicism but for supportive scepticism, for curiosity that is both restless and focused.

The South African conversation on these issues, the issues that matter most, is constrained by three habits that don’t serve us well:

• We too often think that a passionately held idea deserves time, consideration and discussion because it is passionately held. And because it is articulated by someone whose previous passionate arguments have given them prominence.
• We don’t sufficiently distinguish between intention and action, announcements and implementation, policy and delivery.
• And we believe that because our democracy was born out of a bold and inspired reach across deep divides there is always a win-win solution to everything. (Spoiler alert: sometimes there isn’t.)