Jacob Zuma casts doubt on the Constitution and the Mail & Guardian cuts the Africa section: what a week!
Insulting the dignity of the Constitutional Court is the sort of thing I expect to hear coming out of Julius Malema’s mouth; I didn’t expect the head of the ANC to say such a thing. It’s sad. I’m not going to dwell on Mr Zuma; others have and will do that much more eloquently than I can. I want to think out loud about the Mail & Guardian and what I believe to be its incredibly short-sighted decision to no longer have a section devoted to news from our continent.
Let me put some cards on the table before continuing — I am married to Stephanie Wolters, who was editor of the Africa section of the M&G until last month. She has moved on to other challenges and I had looked forward to hearing who would replace her and continue delivering news about Africa to my door.
I’ve been a devoted reader of the Africa section and most of the rest of the M&G since long before I knew Stephanie and long before it was called the M&G; anybody interested in South Africa had to read it. Increasingly over the years, the M&G became an important source of information about the rest of Africa, and by the rest of Africa I mean Africa north of the Zambezi — the countries that are not in our immediate back yard.
Africa-watchers know that media in South Africa is not strong in reporting African news. The best sources of news about this continent have their offices in London and Paris. I’m thankful that I can get a good dose of African news before I get out of bed every morning by listening to Network Africa on the BBC and Afrique Matin on Radio France Internationale. I’d also like to be able to open a South African newspaper and feel I’m getting a reasonable resume of what’s important in Africa at the time of printing.
I don’t expect the dailies to say much about the Congo, Sudan, Senegal or Nigeria because that’s not the sort of information most of the people in their target audience is looking for. The dailies are also not trying to build up a readership in Nairobi and Kampala, however the Mail & Guardian was. I know many people in East Africa who look forward to reading the M&G more than they do their own weekly regional newspaper — the East African. And I know many more in more distant parts of the continent who wish they had a paper such as the M&G to read.
Africa needs a good newspaper and the M&G has the potential to be that publication. But it needs to invest not only in content, which at the moment is sadly insufficient; it must also invest in distribution, as well as cultivate advertisers from well beyond the Limpopo. It can be done — DSTV/Multichoice manages to find advertisers from the far reaches of Africa and French-language news magazines about Africa manage to find their way to my post box and shelves of CNA on a regular basis — Jeune Afrique in particular.
If M&G management feel the need to ditch content, I would have axed the international news section long before taking out Africa. Most of the international news is wire copy or copy from other newspapers that is already out of date by the time we read it on Friday. And frankly, there can’t be too many people who wait for the M&G to come out to find out what’s happening in Europe, Asia or the Americas. Chances are, people who purchase the most expensive newspaper in South Africa also have the means to get their world news elsewhere, most likely by trawling the internet. The large numbers of people who access M&G Online from overseas certainly aren’t trying to find out if France is getting ready to play a more dominant role in Nato!
Trevor — have you lost interest in the M&G or are you planning on turning your new daily in Zimbabwe into the paper for Africa? There are quite a few of us who could use some good news.
I always thought that it was surprising how out of touch all the papers in South Africa were let alone the Mail and Guardian.
Rather like Mugabe playing lip service to Africa for Africans and then driving around in an open top Rolls Royce, pretending to be a Colonial Governor General, and wanting sanctions dropped so he could go shopping in Harrods for his suits.
In the same manner African reporting seems to be lip service for bizarrely Western viewpoints that the west gave up on forty years ago.
Whilst these days the West dresses up in galibayyas they got on holiday in Egypt whilst South African papers fail to mention the political situation in Egypt, let alone the largest Arabic, largest in Africa and fourth largest Film Industry in the World.
http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2007/04/film-arab-egyptian-building
PS. If a paper opens in Zimbabwe, then in the current situation, someone received a large bribe to make it happen.
south africans in general are not interested in the rest of africa. that the m&g had an africa section made it unique, basically.
i guess oom trev has finally got his south african nationality or something.
Look you are partially right. Not only is there no good newspaper about Africa, but the few African stories covered are used copied from European news.
Even the perception about SA is more Euro centric leaving some of us wondering whether Africans have any opinion on anything at all.
Join the Club!Mail and Guardian is feeding us Godzille and anti-Zuma news all along.Nothing on Afrikaners!!Save you english and try Australian news maybe!Obama news? We need a newspaper with our African Perpective.Now this one is all British! Stooges and coconuts make it even worse.Then they get awards from their masters….Dog biting boss’s hand eina!!!
This Day tried hard to focus on African news and it died a swift and comprehensive death. People want something more cheerful in their newspapers!
David Smith, the Constitutional Court judges are no different from my local pastors who derive their “power” and “wisdom” from the bible, whose interpretation depends on their whims. The Constitutional Court judges derive their “power” and “wisdom” from the constitution which they are free to interpret whichever way they choose. From where I’m sitting it seems the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court judges derive their wisdom from elsewhere other than the courts. How can Louis Harmse accused Nicholson of going off tangent when Nicholson was specifically asked by the NPA to strike off what they considered to be a vexatious paragraph from the accused’s submission. Whatever Nicholson said emanated from the need to deal with the NPA’s request. What you are saying has nothing to do with your respect for the law. It’s about protecting any institution that advances your personal interests.
It is a disgrace that an African newspaper can do away with its own news what a pity.
Hi Peter – Nice to see somebody out there remembers This Day. I was quite sad to see it die a rapid death. Dare I say, it wasn’t because of Africa News that this day ceased to exist, but I’ll leave it to any ex-staffer from This Day to tell you that story – I sincerely believe there is space for a paper like This Day in South Africa. Wise leadership with vision at the M&G could fill that space.
And if dropping the Africa section at the M&G isn’t enough – The SABC has decided to close its bureau in the Democratic Republic of Congo. South Africa’s news and information leader isn’t doing much leading. I do hope this will pass. SABC International has an excellent African current affairs programme called African Views, where African current affairs are discussed daily for an hour. Sadly, DSTV/Multichoice doesn’t carry the channel – it’s easier to pick up the programme in the USA, where it is carried on cable, than it is in either Johannesburg, Kinshasa, or Lagos. However this too shall pass, and a new and stronger SABC will one day appear!
What a shame the world has lost intelligent analysis about the “rest of Africa”. I’m based in Amsterdam and have enjoyed the M&G Africa coverage for several years. This like as if the FT decided to ignore developments on the other side of the English channel.
there’s a lot of good news coming out of elsewhere in africa. it just doesn’t sell/no one is interested.
it’s like the success of shows like maury povice and jerry springer — the “west” wants to feel good that someone has it worse than they do, and south africans want to feel superior over the rest of the continent despite having one of the most toxic societies on the entire planet.
Mundundu – good news does sell! We have just launched our latest website – Africa The Good News http://www.africagoodnews.com, based on the success of http://www.sagoodnews.com.