I despise bullies. Inevitably, my first experience of that was at school. Well I remember being lifted up by my shirt and banged against a school wall while the big, grinning bully and his cronies laughed at me hanging against the wall, shoes dangling in the air. I had done nothing to deserve this. If I was a school principal I would crack down unbelievably hard on any form of bullying in schools. This includes teachers.

Julius Malema and his crony, Floyd Shivambu, have become bullies. Bullies are cowards and lack strength of character. They have no backbone and no moral integrity. They are a shame and a disgrace to South Africa. These bullies prey on the weak. They serve their own puerile interests. The interests of the nation and its diverse, wonderful cultures and groups are irrelevant to these monsters-in-waiting. They have no grasp of real leadership. Malema has managed to terrify the wits out of farmers, the boere, with his bullying tactics in that stupid chant about boere, killing them and accusing them of rape. Some have been murdered and injured because of Malema’s incendiary braying. Grow up, boy. The president of South Africa also lacks backbone and leadership as he lets Malema does as he please. Hence my previous blog, a bleak satire of sorts, was not even vaguely funny.

But Malema and his cronies will lose. Freedom of the press in this country will prevail. Because at the end of the day the truth and the pursuit of the truth will prevail. Integrity, strength of character, fair play, all human rights, peaceful solutions — at the end of the day — will win. We may not oust Malema from his position as president of the ANCYL — yet — but we can number the bully’s days as someone who will not have any real influence over the future of this beloved country. I may be speaking from New Zealand because of my insatiable desire to globe-trot, but I love the country and cultures of South Africa. We will win because there will always be a free press, a voice of conscience. The free press in South Africa is like a cockroach. It can survive anything. Viva Free Press! Long live!

* * *

SpeakZA Bloggers for a free press

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of ANC Youth League Spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the secretary-general of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money-laundering practices of Dumisane Lubisi, a journalist atCity Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa.

We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but an insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the youth league president.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

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Rod MacKenzie

Rod MacKenzie

CRACKING CHINA was previously the title of this blog. That title was used as the name for Rod MacKenzie's second book, Cracking China: a memoir of our first three years in China. From a review in the Johannesburg...

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