It’s official, the ANC doesn’t like the media. Alert the media. My and my journo buddies’ tender application prospects take a dive with each article published, it seems. Mom and dad told me journalism means I may never see the inside of a BMW M3 or rock Gucci. In what it perceives as a deliberate anti-ANC slant in news reporting, the ANC has intensified its war against the media industry. Not only have they unleashed a brand new media-keep in the fiery Zizi Kodwa, the ruling party is now in the business of bussing angry supporters to the country’s most famed media houses to ululate, kill time and give memos to newspaper editors when unimpressed. This is done while performing an ancestor-calling stomp dance to scare them into daint submission. Shortly before the elections, the media’s incessant jibber jabbering about Nkandla culminated in the Mail & Guardian publishing an editorial called Editorial:Vote tactically to dilute ANC power.” The first time since 1994 that the weekly paper hasn’t endorsed the ANC in an election. Last week, ANCYL supporters responded to the long-published article by marching to and protesting outside the Mail & Guardians offices. The article, they believe, was yet another piece of anti-democratic revolution sabotage meant to undermine their humble ambitions of a 2/3 electoral majority. Having marched to the office of Primedia after the EWN’s publishing of “Congress of Clowns,” it seems media house storming and the deployment of Zizi Kodwa as national spokesperson may fall within a larger ANC strategy to counter what the believe to be the media-inspired anti-ANC sentiment rampant in ‘the court of public opinion.’
Was the Mail & Guardian within their rights to publish that article? Or is the ANC entirely missing the point of the role the media MUST play within the ambit of a democracy? Well, the seemingly villainous posture the ANC has taken in SA media since Nelson Mandela stepped down is the fire to the fuel of a soon-landing Live VIP Feature called The ANC: WTF Happened?
In the meantime, you can read up further on the ANC’s media troubles here and here and here and here and…here.
For now, we suggest the ANC settle its troubled relationship with SA media by setting up an arm-wrestling death-match between Zizi Kodwa and Xoli Mngambi from eNCA.
That’s it from me for today.
The sun will come out tomorrow and so will The Latest with Molefi. Ahoy!
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The #2014Elections have set an exciting and vibrant context for the future of South Africa politics to unfold upon. What happens now that you’ve voted? How do we gauge whether we’re “moving the country forward”, whether we’re “bringing change” or “economic freedom in our lifetime”? Stick with #LiveVIPZA and we’ll give you analysis, debates, comments, polls and all YOU need to understand, enjoy and interact with SA politics.
