The SABC's stalwart reporter and the broadcaster's glimmer of professional journalism, Chriselda Lewis, continues to shine as she reports for SABC News, with a brilliant story and visual take-down today showing (and showing up!) striking Numsa members blatantly intimidating people who want to work.
In an excellent camera piece Chriselda Lewis - with just that touch of can't-make-this-up on-screen drama - and reporting today from Randburg on the second day of the strike in South Africa's motor sector, once again seemed to be at just the right places, at just the right times.
It was Chriselda Lewis and her cameraman who vividly captured Numsa workers with sticks intimidating people who wanted to work at petrol stations, and again scored when she was also there when striking workers entered a car dealership and were asked to leave.
The irony and truth facts were elevated as a trashy Numsa spokesperson came across as either uninformed, duplicitous or both as he said in the story that Numsa has "no reports of our own structures that our members are doing that".
The brilliance of Chriselda Lewis' piece was not just including the official union line and the obligatory go-to spokesperson drop-in quote, but showing in a way only television can do, in real TV reporting, what is actually happening.
In eloquent and dramatic on-site language at a petrol station in Randburg Chriselda Lewis excellently reported how workers who want to stay on the job because it ensures money for a loaf of bread, are intimidated.
Chriselda Lewis asked point blank correct questions of bumbling Numsa workers on strike who appeared unable to answer her as to whether people who want to work have a right to do so unhindered.
She also interviewed a petrol attendant - his face in the dark - who wanted to work, as Chriselda Lewis managed as one reporter to cover and include all the angles - and quite dramatically so - for a great TV news story.
The brazen SABC reporter was in the thick of the action today for a great visual story on the strike, much better than anything seen on eNCA (DStv 403) or ANN7 (DStv 405).
