I was hurt and angry when officials from the ruling party called me and my colleagues the “real opposition” of the ANC.
That was a few months ago when ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe and other senior officials were at pains to explain why they thought a media appeals tribunal and other oppressive statutes would be the best ingredients for our democracy.
And just as I began basking in the glory of being on the side of the right, I read in the papers recently that we have the members of Parliament of the country’s opposition embedded within our press clubs.
Ouch! Now I found myself wondering whether Mantashe and others weren’t right after all.
The story of Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Tina Joemat-Pettersson refusing to address a Cape Town Press Club where her shadow counterpart from the main opposition — the Democratic Alliance Pieter Van Dalen serves — has raised many eyebrows, especially in the newsrooms.
Not much because of the initial refusal of the minister to address what was clearly a networking opportunity with the media but because there was a politician among us disguised as a journalist.
The minister is quoted as saying she was “under the impression that being invited to a press club meant addressing members of the media, not politicians”, otherwise she would have attended in her capacity as an ANC national executive committee member.
This saga raises questions about whether politicians should be allowed to become press club members.
As a journalist, myself, I think the minister’s statement was fair enough, and NO, I don’t think it can be right for a press club to have a politician as a member.
This is for the simple reason that it would open the forum of journalists to abuse and raises questions about our integrity and impartiality.
And the insults from people like Mantashe that we are ganging up with the opposition will begin to hold water.
And it doesn’t help that we had begun to go as far as allowing ourselves to be used to lobby (with the opposition) and get petitions signed to oppose government projects (e-tolls) instead of ONLY reporting on why it may be wrong or right and exposing corruption behind such projects.
I took this issue with my friends on Facebook, most of whom are journalists, to gauge their feelings.
“It’s about what this does to public confidence in journalists’ ability to just be journalists,” well-known spin doctor and columnist Chris Vick said.
“In my book they shouldn’t be, precisely because they are newsmakers and not newshounds”, added former journalist Themba Sepotokele.
Pinky Khoabane had a mouthful, but her shock can be summed up by “Its madness [that a politician should serve on a press club] …”
But it appears like those who are entrusted with heading these clubs don’t see anything wrong with a politician sitting in a club of journalists.
“Van Dalen is a fully paid-up member of the Cape Town Press Club and as such is entitled to attend any Cape Town Press Club event he chooses to attend,” said club chairperson Donwald Pressley.
But Pressely, really now? Putting friendship and party loyalty aside, why would you think journalists should accept someone who they are supposed to be holding to account into their fold? Are they able to talk against some of the bad things the DA is doing, or they’ll be scared to hurt him? What value does a member of the opposition bring to the journalists’ forum anyway, except perhaps a very exclusive access to his bosses and a perfect chance to distribute opposition press statements and regalia? Oh wait, and some money I guess.
What’s up for discussion in your meetings? How bad the ANC run the country? How the IFP should be fed up with their ageing leader? How Cope lost hope? Because I am sure these parties are not represented in the CPC, and I doubt any of their officials would be allowed if they asked?
Was CPC formed to be used by (or as an arm of) the main opposition to grill “others”, like it was nearly the case with Joemat-Pettersson had she not picked it, as if the stage the opposition is given in Parliament is not enough.
The minister’s conduct is “disrespectful” and “smacks of arrogance and this nonsense must stop,” National Press Club chairperson Yusuf Abramjee added to the insults that followed.
Nonsense? Perhaps Abramjee should explain why he thinks its right serving alongside a politician in a club of journalists. And I wonder if he would allow, say for example, Collins Chabane, Tony Enrenreich or even Julius Malema to be a member of the NPC.
“It’s about the gross violations by journalists of their own code of conduct. Yusuf Abramjee who heads the NPC has no idea of what media ethics are. This Business Report journalist (Pressely) has no idea the extent of his violations are in accepting an MP to be a member of a press club. My view is that the entire 4th estate is a fallacy ‐ no balance or fairness in reporting & complete violation of media ethics,” Khoabane lashed in Facebook debate.
I am sure Khoabane’s sentiments about the fourth estate are shared by most of the public. The media has taken the whipping recently because of our reporting and many retractions we were forced to be published ‐ as per the Ombudsman’s report this year which showed there was 70% increase in complaints against the press.
Already the ANC is having a meal of this following the scandal and questions the non-partisan way the media is supposed to operate.
“This has been vindicated … This anomaly is symptomatic of an institution that is founded on questionable grounds given the fact that generally the membership of a press club is a preserve of professionals in the media space who are expected to be objective and non-partisan when it comes to party politics.”
We cannot allow the media to be infiltrated by people like Van Dalen or any politician for that matter. It’s either he becomes an MP or a journalist, not both. The line that separates the two should be very clear if we are to regain the little confidence left in the public about the media.
And how the CPC allowed him to remain there until now boggles my mind. How many times did he use the space he’s given to push for his political ends? His immediate comment “I am even more resolute in my belief that the minister is unfit to hold public office,” suggests he wanted to use the opportunity to finish his battle with Joemat-Pettersson that he failed to win during her budget debate in Parliament.
I support ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga when he said press clubs need to revisit the membership criteria.
My friend Tapiwa Gomo, who is a public relations practitioner, asked a question about who is qualified to be on a press club.
“[It] still goes back to the Constitution on who can be a member or not … We had this debate in Zimbabwe over who must register as a journalist; a trained journalist [who is not practicing] or one who is practicing. If it is one who is practising how you do handle a non-media contributor such as a columnist, etc?” Gomo asked in Facebook debate. Maybe the CPC allowed for opposition politicians to be members, we don’t know.
But as Motshekga said, the media is capable and competent enough to hold the government to account and did not need the assistance of opposition politicians, especially in a press club.
We can have a debate on whether journalists are not supposed to belong to a political party. But even if we do, we still have a duty to be neutral, and to hold politicians to account whether they belong to the ruling party or the opposition.
Hellen Zille studied journalism and practiced as such. It would be tragic and scandalous if we allow Abramjee to hand over the baton to her as the chairwoman of the NPC, whenever he decides its time he retires.
While I take your point, I think you’ve missed the far greater one: Where does a minister, being paid by the people, get off at refusing to answer questions from a member of the public, even a member of the opposition?
Minister Joemat-Pettersson has steadfastly refused to answer any questions about the fisheries tender for months. It stinks like day old fish, and she refuses to comment, in Parliament or before the press.
That’s the real issue in this little dust-up, and what we really need to focus on. The government needs to remember that they’re responsible to us.
The Cape Town Press Club is the oldest and most active press club in South Africa, and our membership base includes politicians, business people, journalists, PR practitioners and members of the diplomatic corps.
Until now, members of the media and people who may be of interest to the media and public, including politicians from all parties, have been welcome to apply for membership. Members are also welcome to bring guests to functions. Our membership includes public representatives from all parties. Politicians are also allowed to be members of international press clubs such as the National Press Club in Washington, the New York Press Club, and others in America, Europe and the Far East.
We are committed to a democratic South Africa where equality and free speech is respected, protected and defended. Our mission is to provide a platform and we have managed to do so.
We are not a press conference or press briefing forum. Nor are our functions for members only. Excluding politicians from our membership would not necessarily have changed the events around this unfortunate incident, since members are allowed guests and these guests may include politicians.
The chair at meetings is always in control and will intercede if a member of the audience starts to make a political speech.
No previous politician ¬- from Jacob Zuma to Tokyo Sexwale to Malusi Gigaba and Helen Zille – has had an issue with this. All have spoken to the press club with other…
I agree 100% with your sentiments, I was appauled at the inclusion of a DA MP as a member of the Cape town Press Club and even more so when I read their statements that only expressed arrogance at this matter. This incident was a well calculated plot to manipulate the Minister, the public and the media at large. Unfortunately I envisage that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Through embedded editors, journalists and media houses, the DA is clearly using tactics last seen during Apartheid to gain influence and undermine our democracy.
1) As depicted rather fittingly by the cartoon in Die Burger on Saturday, the media and the South African public are by now probably quite aware of the furore surrounding Minister Joemat-Pettersson’s refusal to address a Cape Town Press Club Conference in the presence of a politician (yours truly).
During the debate on the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries budget vote in Parliament last week, I called on the minister to resign given her questionable performance over the last three years. Her department is in a mess. So it is understandable that the minister would not want to be in the same room as me, but she should then at least have been honest in her reasoning. Most bizarrely, the ANC even defended the minister as ‘reasonable’.
Of course, there is a danger that the Press Club incident will simply detract attention from the minister’s poor performance. And thus the emphasis must remain there, as her refusal to address the club is indicative of the minister’s general unwillingness to engage stakeholders. One thing the minister should learn – politically speaking – is that it pays to keep your enemies close; learn from them. Treat your enemies carefully, for in some ways they will mind you. Sometimes, they last with you longer than your friends. So let us then, for the sake of democracy, engage the merits of the case at hand………
2) The minister argued that she would not address the Press Club in my presence as she was not aware that she was addressing a political gathering. As with much of the minister’s reasoning, especially around her reasoning to move some of the fisheries branch to Pretoria, the logical extensions thereof are simply absurd. The presence of one politician at a gathering of this nature does not make it a political gathering.
That is logically equivalent to arguing that if a politician turns up at a church fete, it is by definition a political event.
The absurdity is that the minister is destroying the very meaning of the word ‘political’, for if every event is ‘political’, then no event is ‘political’. Will the minister no longer be addressing any gathering for fear that it will be ‘political’? Minister Joemat-Pettersson and her ANC cronies are famous for slippery-slope reasoning, but this is one of the most jarring examples. Where does one draw the line? On what grounds should an MP be excluded from membership, but not a political activist, for instance? Are journalists themselves inherently politically neutral (as some members of the press appear to be crowing)? The lines are here blurry and the principle at play is one of reasonable discrimination on clear grounds. Those clear grounds are absent in the case at hand…….
3) The DA has always been strongly in favour of a separation of powers, and welcomes debate on what the reasonable criteria for Press Club membership should be in light of recent events.
But we would also remind the Minister, and the ANC, that it should spend more time on building credibility through decent governing performance than on trying to wade through the murky waters of who should be allowed to belong to a press club.
We would suggest that this red herring is not the fish that the Minister should currently try and hook.
To top it all off, the Minister also pulled out the predictable ‘racism’ card. The statement issued by her special adviser, Rams Mabote, said: ‘We now finally understand why the majority of black reporters in the city are not members of the press club’……….
4)Exactly what race had to do with any of this debate is patently unclear, which raises another typical problem in ANC reasoning – that of leaping from assertion to conclusion. Mr Mabote castigated the Press Club for not including the minister’s ‘explanation’ in its statement issued after the incident and then moved immediately to saying that the ANC now finally understands why black reporters don’t belong to the club. The logical link is clear only to those who view everything through the prism of race. This is clearly true of the Minister herself, who is unhappy with the state of transformation in the fishing industry, recently having been upset that the 66% black ownership figure was only accurate ‘if you count Coloureds and Indians’. At the time, I asked the minister how black one has to be to be categorised as ‘black’. I have yet to receive an answer.
The major problem with pulling out the race card at every turn, even when there is no logical substance to the argument, is that nobody can take you seriously. Race is such a useless category. The ANC treat it as determinative, even though one’s skin colour clearly cannot be determinative as it cannot be changed. The insistence on race for no sound reason is rather ironic from the party whose forefathers pioneered the notion of non-racialism. We would therefore urge the Minister and her ANC cronies to refrain from jumping to the useless but evocative category of race unless it wants to engage intelligibly on…
5) Finally, the Minister should tread carefully now – you never know where the next white politician might turn up. The End Thank you.
…I am an official in a local hockey club…and a journalist, member of the pressclub, as well as a member of parliament of the XXX political party as well as a member of the SA public.
Can the minister of sport refuse to speak to me on hockey issues in a meeting of my press club, set for hockey issues, because of my “press card”?????
@Martin, the ruling party is trying to pick holes into anything they can’t control to try and take it over. If the people that don’t like this press club should form their own press club instead of being whiners. You are right the press club of Capetown has a cross section of people that want to join it and what’s wrong with this?
@Kwame, in a free country the political parties have a right to join any press club they want and there is nothing wrong with it. What you and others are trying to do is make a mountain out of a mole. Those of you that don’t like this press club should form your own press club because there is no crime that the DA is a member.
The Minister was smart enough to realize she was walking into an ambush. Good for her!
I agree with Kwame, these underhanded tactics are just the tip of the iceberg of the dirty tricks routinely used by our media mafia, after all they were well schooled by the apartheid information propaganda machine.
From the head of the NPC, Yusuf Abramjee down to the response above of Martin Slabbert, Vice Chair, Cape Town Press Club, we see that our media is bereft of basic media ethics and why media reform is so important for the stability of our nascent democracy. They just don’t get it!
What a load of BS! The only condition under which the minister should be assured a limited audience is in a top secret briefing. By accepting the Press Club’s invitation, she knew that news would travel fast, whoever was there.
And what was she likely to say that SA doesn’t already know? That agriculture will probably not be able to grow sufficient food in the case of drought conditions? That our forests are likely to reduce given the state of Sappi? Or that it’s a shame you can’t buy decent fish anywhere but in Gauteng?
The ANC really should send its toddlers to pre-school.
Dave, please read the piece that Brent Meersman posted on the main page of Thoughtleader, so you can understand what a press club is actually about.
Martin
Dave is immune to logic. Don’t even bother…
What this really proves is that there r some people amongst us who cannot understand, accept or abide by the rules of engagement when it doesnt suit them. This attitude and conduct smacks of arrogance and a bad attitude towards the ruling party of this country, It seems that they want to pull out all the tricks in the book to embarass this govt. It is skullduggery and disingenuous behaviour. And this depite all the protestations and moral high ground these people now want to take, the fact of the matter is that their conduct and behaviour is wrong. Now for the cheek of it they mis-use this forum and others and barrage us with their idiotic explanations. Its the same as the ”refugee” utterances, not only did these friends condone and defend this utterance, they had to be silenced by an insincere apology. This defence and utterances smacks of the same old, defend and insult those who raises questions of morality. I wonder if they had adopted the very same attitude if Helen ZIlle was invited by the Press Club to explain herself and if she had found her opponent thr as a member. I think that media in general and journalism in particular is disrespected for good reason. Citizens have become distrustful and treat some with the contempt they deserve. I think that journalists and media should be blamed for the demise of a once-respected and revered skill.. I totally agree with the Minister, why should she have a special briefing for “DA”" and their supporters, to what end?
I would venture to say that freedom of association and speech is well entrenched in the Constitution. I do not think that being a member of a “Press Club” is essential to be afforded observer status in particular instances.
Methinks the minister was just being mischievious and playing to a ready made media gallery! and it did sell a few extra newspapers, so there were winners all round, but a gullible public again shafted!
As a journalist I say NO to politicians being allowed membership of press clubs – whatever they do overseas is not the point!
Joemat Petterssen is not in my view a great minister when it comes to foreign exhange earned by agriculture and fisheries, but on the press club issue she is 100% correct.
Politicians are known to want to get on the “right” side of a journalist – what better opportunity than to belong to the same club on the same footing. This is not healthy for a free and independent media in SA, especially not now that press freedom is at stake.
I think you all make valid points.
But i still think its wrong for politicians to be part of journalists club – whether that politician belongs to the ANC, DA or even IFP, its just wrong. The public is already losing confidence.
Already there are questions about our integrity, impartiality as journalists. Already there are oppressive laws coming out of Luthuli House that will see us all in jail. We cannot then give them armament by having people we shud be policing and writting about among us. Imagine if Cele was a member of the Cape Town Press Club for example?
I am glad all this happened, i am glad we are talking about it, and im glad CPC has agreed to raise the issue in committee and to also place it on the agenda at the club’s next AGM.
As i mentioned above, it could be that CPC constitution as an autonomous body allows for inclusion of politicians, business people, church leaders etc. I used to be a member of Foreign Corresponce Ass in my previous job and their constitution denied local journos to be members for, e.g. But unless something changes, the whole arrangement at CPC will blow in our faces and we definately havent seen the last of last week’s incident. Maybe it worked during apartheid, when the oppressed(black, white and coloured) needed a united front to confront the system, until the Nats thought the club was against them. But dont you think its time for a little change?
Isaac is right. That is why I am joining the popular demand that the toothless press Ombudsman be replaced by a media review panel that has the power, not just to correct irresponsibly one-sided coverage, but also to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent so-called press clubs from being further infiltrated by those who would annex them as tools of white opposition to transformation.
Isaac, you’re not going to win anyone over with that rebuttal. You can’t claim that the public are going to lose confidence in journalists because a politician sat in on an open meeting. Now if said politician was passing over a brown envelope you might have a case, but two people in an open meeting engaging in debate is hardly call for losing confidence.
I don’t think anyone would care if Cele was a member of the CPC as it seems they have quite an open policy – Cele might care as he probably get lost in the debate somewhere….
Not sure what your apartheid reference is supposed to mean, the CPC is as relevant now as it was then. Why should it change just for the sake of change?
Then Ian call it a social club or a tea-drinking club – NOT press club, As a journalist it worries me that this club prefess to represent my interests, and to borrow from Chris Vick, they are seen by the public to articulate the interests of the press, and the media in general. But to have a forum like Cape Tow Press Club, with only 20% of its members practicing journalists and the rest business people and pensioners, and politicians, cannot be right.
Van Dalen may not be passing brown envelopes,Ian but he does pass reminders about DA meetings and pass press statements which we have often seen gladly published word-for-word without fail in newspapers. Im damn sure (and he knows this too) that it benefits him to be there, to use the platform to meet his political means.
Fair enough Isaac, that yours view and i can respect that.
You could of course say that the press clubs inclusiveness is an example to the rest of SA…unlike say the BMF, or some weird club in Orania….
Out of interest – does Van Dalen pass reminders about other political party meetings?
This paranoia is not good for our democracy!
What is wrong with politicians being accepted as ordinary members of Press Clubs? I think this would only be a problem if the said politicians ‘served’ (as Pinky Khoabane seems to think) on Press Club committees and influenced strategy, which I do not believe is the case.
What disgusts me more is not an opposition MP being a member of a Press Club, but a government Minister refusing to address a Press Club breakfast simply because an opposition MP is in the room. As a matter of fact, one doesn’t have to be a member in order to attend Press Club events. Would Jamat-Petterssen have reacted in the same way even if the opposition MP in question was simply there as an interested South African, NOT a paid-up member of the Press Club?
Asked in another way, suppose Press Clubs were to give in to this silly paranoia and started barring politicians from being members, would it also mean that politicians would not be allowed to attend Press Club events, even if they paid non-member fees to attend such events? Aren’t we going too far?
Well, The ANC have come out en mass for support of their Minister who has unfortunately got a track record that speaks for itself. If Helen Zille had been
invited or Mr Van Dalen and this lady had been in the Audience or even President Zuma had been in the audience, they would not have been pertubed or unsettled at all. Actually, they might have even have appreciated their presence. After all, if a Minister is there respresenting the Citizens of this Country, they should be capable and qualified to occupy that position and a successful True Professional in their field, is never pertubed by the presence of Individuals no matter who they may be. This Minister is actually a round peg in a square hole and holds no respected Qualifications whatsoever with regards to her Portfolio and is obviously out of her depth and unfortunately true Professionals are very aware of this and her performance and management of her Department has confirmed that without a doubt. As a last resort, to save face, she needs to trot out the old Race Card. Sorry Madam, it is not working, you are getting paid to deliver and perform, and you get paid a big fat salary and perks by the Citizens of this Country to do professionally, not to throw TANTRUMS!
@Yvonne, suggest you watch the theatrics of your leader, Helen on the parly channel and maybe just maybe you would want to retract this ridiculous assumption. Secondly, the point is that the Press Club is apolitical. The minute you have a working politician and not a mere supporter, a working politician who is the counterpart of the Minister there, not in the audience but actively involved, surely it smacks of opportunistic charades that this Minister must engage and waste her time with. I mean, I cannot believe how some of us are suppose to be subjected to such ridiculous and scandalous charades. Its overt and covert. It is simply unbelievable to suggest that we fear the DA. Ok maybe the ”gevaar” scenario is still embedded in certain psyches, but this fear is just way over the top. Please explain?
I do not know what the stated purposes of a press club are and it would seem to me that this is true too for most of the people commenting here. This means that like me they are making assumptions about the purposes of a press club just from the name ‘press club’ and the assumptions are not made explicit either. Such situations provide fertile soil for heated argumentation and very little else of any real value to the wider community . I think this is clear from the postings here. Could somebody who is in the know tell us what the stated purpose of a press club is or does the stated purposes vary from press club to press club?
The Press Club, one would hope, is there to have questions asked of invited speakers in a civilized environment. No-one is infiltrating anything.
Now if some-one said, the Civil Service should be manned by non-political individuals who are there to provide a service to all citizens, and not to cover up for the Government, then you would be saying something meaningful.
Pinky Khoabane ?? … is that the columnist who was dumped by the Sunday Times for her weekly racist rants at pale-skinned mortals and her blatant hero worship of Robert Mugabe??
… do you seriously consider her opinions on this issue valid?
Of course, there is a danger that the Press Club incident will simply detract attention from the minister’s poor performance. The emphasis must remain on the latter, as her refusal to address the club is indicative of the minister’s general unwillingness to engage stakeholders. One thing the minister should learn, though, is that it pays to keep your enemies close; learn from them instead of castigating them. The Minister and her minions are in the business of alienation because they cannot handle the heat of substance. Mr Bobaka entertains delusions of grandeur and really seems to believe that the minister delivered a ‘Sunday morning punch’ against me during the budget vote debate. Others would call it a cowardly ‘hit and run’. That the minister later had to retract her ‘punch’ is evidence that it was in fact below the belt. Mr Bobaka is a civil servant, employed by the state (not the ANC), and he should remember this before making bizarre assertions about the DA and its relationship with the truth, which of course remain unsubstantiated.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=171568
• Persons wishing to become members of the club must be committed to pursuing and promoting the interests of the Press, media and communication industries, especially the principle of providing, through the Club, a non-partisan forum and platform for the exchange of opinions and ideas in the spirit of a free Press and freedom of speech, conscience and association.
I think its a very strange coincidence that this issue is occurring at a point in time when restrictive freedom of press laws are under consideration. Why all of a sudden, when press clubs have always supposedly had politicians, is it an issue now? Particularly for the government, who is trying to introduce these laws,in the only province not held by the same party? Can someone please explain this coincidence?
How can the Minister be ambushed if the meeting is open to the public and all political parties? I am assuming it is on the record. If so, the Minister should have attended, and then if ambushed, could have had on record the ambush!
Why is it an ambush if it is transparent? And apparently the opposition Minister, who was the apparent threat acknowledged their differences and agreed not to question her.
Unfortunately this reminds me of an incident in 2008…..when the President held a private press meeting for blacks only. This was not transparent or on record, and was exclusionary, but someone correct me if I am wrong, this type of press meeting was allowed. There is a contradiction in the governments dealing with the press here.
On the other hand maybe press clubs should not have politicians, but its all a bit bizarre in the context the issue is playing out in. Is the Minister not equally guilty then for going to attend this press club, and then all of a sudden being absent because her opposition is there?Have opposing politicians been in press meetings before?
Rams Mabote says: Imagine walking into a butcher shop only to find that it is actually a morgue, in spite of the signage outside. Worse still, how would you feel if you took your car for a service only to realise that the place advertised as a workshop is actually a chop shop? Do you still leave your car there hoping that the signboard is more comforting than the reality you find inside? This is how the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson felt..