One of the valuable lessons I have learnt about communication and handling the media was not in a lecture hall or a training room but through a newspaper article penned by former presidential spokesperson, Bheki Kumalo.

Signing off as former president Thabo Mbeki's spokesperson in 2009, Kumalo, who shared some of his experiences as the face and voice of the president, offered free advice, not only to the then-incoming presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, who served under former president Jacob Zuma and now under President Cyril Ramaphosa,..