Veteran SABC broadcast journalist Peter Ndoro is taking a break from his job after he mistakenly declared that President Cyril Ramaphosa had died instead of Zimbabwe's MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
In a similar mistake in January, Ndoro also announced that IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi had died instead of former Bophuthatswana leader, Lucas Manyane Mangope.
Ndoro — who has since apologised to the President, has told the SABC he's suffering from fatigue and the public broadcaster's Kaizer Kganyago says management has agreed to his request for a break from the show.
The matter, which has drawn different views on social media, has left us with five lessons we can learn from Ndoro's very human mistakes:
1. The most of consummate of professionals can make mistakes
It's Power FM's Thabiso Tema who clarified it best, that perhaps Ndoro's mistake was amplified because it was in public, twice. Woe to us if people would ever find out the number of professional mistakes we've made, only they've been in private.
2. Fatigue is real
Health care experts will tell you about how fatigue decreases a worker's ability to think clearly, make informed decisions, and be a safe and productive worker.
Researcher at the public broadcaster, Ronesh Dhawraj, tweeted that Ndoro had been on air for an entire eleven hours!
Never mind the hectic news week that was, as shared by his colleague Leanne Manas.
3. Your work will speak for itself, even in fatigue
One of the most heartwarming things to come of this is has been support from Ndoro's colleagues across all media platforms and South Africans in general. This shows that the quality of your work and its reputation will likely carry you, when human mistakes like these happen.
4. Employers and employees must be prepared for what can be forecast
While we are not privy to Ndoro's contract with the public broadcaster, or the agreement for the news week that was, some people feel both Ndoro and his employer could've done better in handling the possible outcomes as surely, fatigue could've been forecast.
What if Ndoro had not made the mistakes and continued broadcasting? How else could the fatigue have been detected? Could it have instead manifested through his physical health?
5. As South Africans, humour is our portion
Snark comments aside, South Africans always find humour, in everything.
We are close to opening our news channel #PeterNdoro keep practicing them lines boi. We've all been there, done that. Got you👊🏾 pic.twitter.com/loiGB5fXj0
— Tbo Touch (@iamtbotouch) February 17, 2018
#PeterNdoro Zuma made mistakes for nine years and people were clapping hands. Some says lead us Msholozi. Peter did two with one month
— Jerry Mulaudzi (@39969479409e488) February 17, 2018