The Sunday Times has welcomed the fact that Jacob Zuma won’t continue the tradition of a weekly ANC president’s e-comment. The implication being: we no longer have to wade through screeds/screens of high-brow discourse each week. Au contraire — the change means there will be even fewer opportunities to get a handle on JZ’s thinking […]
Guy Berger
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
FM’s dose of succession tabloiditus
Be afraid of the spectre of a President Zuma. Thus blares the Financial Mail on its cover last week. Inside the mag, you might find even more reason to be afraid. It’s an article about the present president, titled “Arms and the man”, written by editor Barney Mthombothi. Indeed, I’m scared. Some may say my […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Don’t expect political BEEs to sting
It’s temporarily quiet on the Johncom buy-out front. No doubt, though, there’s movement behind the scenes. And the issues certainly have not gone away. The biggest one is the political interest in owning the newspaper stable. No one believes that this interest is purely business-driven, despite protestations to the contrary by Koni Media (with some […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
SA’s press council: Public watchdog or (government) bloodhound?
Government’s constituency is highly irked by recent coverage, said Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency, on Thursday. “In the ANC, there are very, very, very strong views about how the media has been dealing with the ANC. There is real anger. The question is whether this will spill over to regulation — the answer is […]
Posted inMedia
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 […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Media dignitaries debating dignity
Racial dignity was a hot theme during the 2001 Human Rights Commission inquiry into media racism, and it emerged again at the SABC-South African National Editors’ Forum conference last week. Responding to my speech there, SABC CEO Dali Mpofu raised racial dignity as part of his opposition to the Sunday Times’s stories on Health Minister […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Media veterans recall October 19 1977
Here’s how two media stalwarts sum up the significance of the 30th anniversary of the bannings of three newspapers on October 19 1997: Thami Mazwai The day found me doing the rounds in Soweto for the World newspaper. I’ve been a journalist on the active side, never enjoyed journalism on other side of telephone. So […]
Posted inMedia
Leave whoever took Manto’s records; our political health is at stake
Who makes the judgement call about what resources to deploy in a police investigation, and then whether to pursue a prosecution? Because whoever did so in the case of the Sunday Times leadership, who are now apparently facing prosecution, seems to have been motivated by reasons that go beyond sheer law enforcement. And sheer logic. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Does tribal history affect national destiny?
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t believe contemporary politics is about tribalism. The current division is not amaXhosa Mbeki-ites vs amaZulu Zuma-ites. Ethnic differences barely count in the contemporary clashes over succession. But, still, there is something about the history of the amaXhosa that just conceivably has a bearing on the way things are. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Roots of our political warfare
Commentator Xolela Mangcu asked last week what Mandela would think of the current political warfare. The answer can be guessed. But there’s a more profound question to consider: How would he, and we, analyse the way democratic debate has deteriorated into devastating factionalism? One answer lies in Mbeki’s penchant for a centralist style of power. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Whatever happened to ideology?
Back in the struggle days, delineations were political. The regime stood for racism; the white opposition for deracialised capitalism. There were the black consciousness people, the non-racial ANC, the workerists in the unions, and the commies who believed in delaying socialist revolution for a national democratic one. Politics was easy to explain. But it’s been […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Unpacking the sorry state of national politics
Some blame the politicking in current affairs on paranoia by the president. In his suspicion about plots, he is said to have engendered a climate of smear, rumour and leakings. It’s comrade vs comrade, and spy vs spy. With a couple of criminal elements seemingly mixed up in it all. The analysis points to selective […]