Mashabane coverage prompts culture clash

Weekend coverage critiqued ANC political factions for expressing their conflict over the grave of former diplomat Norman Mashabane. Interestingly, there were also clashes over coverage of the man’s death, raised at last Friday’s conference that was convened by the SABC and the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef).

I myself grew up in a detribalised white family, where the unlikely mix of Australian Anglican and Lithuanian Jewish roots never grew very deep. The result is that I underplay culture, but I do realise it’s important to be sensitive to those people who do take hereditary culture seriously — especially “black” people whose history has been one of cultural denigration.

The conflict at the conference concerned the cultural standards about the Sowetan’s reporting of the death of Norman Mashabane — which coverage highlighted the “sex pest” reputation that dogged him in life. Speakers criticised the Sowetan on the basis that (at least some) African culture means that one should never speak ill of the dead.

Sowetan editor Thabo Leshilo responded that his readers would want to know if a dead white person had been a security-police torturer, implying by this remark that he would not practise double standards when it came to Mashabane.

Cultural respect in a case like this is complex:

Does the complaint against Leshilo assume that as a black South African, he should have left out the negative aspects of Mashabane’s life?

Is the complaint because Mashabane (rather than the editor) was black (in which case it might then apply to any editor irrespective of culture or colour)?

Is the complaint a function about emphasis — that the Sowetan prioritised the sex-pest issue at an inappropriate time?

Does the complaint assume that sexual harassment is a minor misdemeanour, and therefore not in the league of public mention at all?

The point of these questions is not to play a smart-alec game of rhetoric. I’m not sure about how to answer them — and, especially, if there are responses that can transcend different cultural beliefs and apply to all South Africans universally.

What is evident to me, though, is that culturally grounded judgements are far from being clear-cut. I argued at the conference that we need to find other ways to deal with these kind of differences, at least by elaborating on them.

Answering some of these questions listed above could help promote understanding. That’s an essential first step if we are to respect and debate, rather than damn, people who have differing perspectives in this diverse and dynamic country.