By Sara Imutowana Yeta II
President Hakainde Hichilema has appointed Anthony Bwalya as Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations.
This, is a well-deserved appointment of an energetic, articulate, knowledgeable and intelligent younger man.
He is a person every serious president or organisation would want to have as Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations.
Anthony is a breed with a natural ability or aptitude to understand and articulate issues.
His inherent or natural endowment or talent or gift whatever you may call it, will help him to excel as Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations.
In my humble opinion, Anthony is likely to be the best Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations in the history of Zambia.
Congratulations Anthony! You deserve that position because you demonstrated the quality of your service to the party.
I feel the appointing authority as well deserve a round of applause for appointing an indubitably competent Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations.
But allow me to play devil’s advocate in a discussion on the suitability of Anthony trending at the moment.
I believe in critiquing phenomena in order to build, nothing else.
Articulate, knowledge, energetic and intelligent as he may be, Anthony has no formal qualification in Public Relations or Media and Communication related studies.
He is a well-known Human Resource Administrator practitioner not Public Relations practitioner. The two disciplines both deal with the people but fundamentally different.
This means that Anthony has never been to school to be officially, after examination or assessment, to be conferred a status as a recognised Public Relations practitioner of a profession or activity.
Put simply, Anthony has no Public Relations education which is the acquisition of broad knowledge, typically within a classroom or other formal educational environments.
The knowledge acquired through formal education in Public Relations is more theoretical and allow people to develop reasoning and judgement surrounding Public Relations matters.
Building on my submission above, it also means that Anthony has no formal training in Public Relations or Media and Communication related studies that occur in a variety of settings, including within a formal classroom.
Though training in Public Relations can take place on the job or in the field, formal training in Public Relations is important because it helps to improve public relations performance and productivity as one is guided by scientific principles.
Therefore, my humble argument is that, based on Anthony’s natural ability, he deserves the position of Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations but he has no formal education and training in Public Relations to have a recognised status of the Public Relations practitioner.
Inferring from this line of thought, Anthony’s natural ability or expertise in Human Resource Administration cannot replace, or be equated to, or be transformed into formal education and training in Public Relations or Media and Communications.
In a nutshell, he is not a qualified Public Relations practitioner.
Therefore, in addition to Anthony’s natural abilities, it is important for people who wish to serve as Special Assistants for Press and Public Relations to go through a formal process of being exposed to public relations theoretical learning in classrooms or any institutions and go through the process of being inculcated with public relations skills.
Since Anthony does not have a formal qualification in Public Relations, it will be good for him to enrol for a degree in Public Relations or Media and Communications related degree to scientifically build knowledge and skills on his excellent natural abilities.
I believe, a blend of Anthony’s natural talent and formal education and training in Public Relations will make him more effective for him to build mutually beneficial relationships between government and publics as he carries out his duty.
Nothing makes a Public Relations practioners more effective than when his or her natural abilities are sharpened by structured and systematic form of education and training in Public Relations.
Congratulations Anthony!