By Janice Winter
Last week saw one of Britain’s biggest media controversies with BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time. Public debate pivoted on the media’s role in guarding democratic space, with interpretations of this responsibility in contradistinction: on the one hand, the view that by inviting the BNP onto Question Time, the BBC was increasing the party’s mainstream credibility and providing a powerful platform for their divisive, undemocratic views; on the other hand, the defence that as the party is legally free to stand (and indeed, win seats) in elections, it is not for the media to declare them unworthy of free speech, but the government’s role.
This immense public engagement with the media and politics led me to reflect on the relative absence of such expectation or outcry in South Africa, and the apathy that has settled in so soon after establishing democratic and media freedoms in our country.
For the purpose of provoking similar debate in South Africa, this post will compare — somewhat counter-intuitively and much to their mutual chagrin, I’m sure — Griffin’s BNP and Julius Malema’s ANC Youth League. Though one leader is accused of inciting racial hatred and white supremacist views, and the other is the youth president of the respected anti-apartheid movement, the parallel points to interesting issues in the relationship between media, politics and the public.
The quote that I instantly associate with the BNP is Nick Eriksen’s infamous assertion: “Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal … to suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting that force-feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched.”
While Erikson was sacked from the extremist BNP for this statement, there was comparatively little public outrage when ANC Youth League’s Malema said of Zuma’s rape accuser: “Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money … in the morning, that lady requested breakfast and taxi money … you can’t ask for money from somebody who raped you.”
Responding to opposition leader Helen Zille’s criticism that Zuma put his wives at risk by having unprotected sex with the HIV-positive woman, Malema countered:
“Zille has appointed an all male cabinet of useless people, majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them … if the fake racist girl Zille continues to speak hogwash like she has been doing, we will take militant action against her … an absolute majority of South Africans support President Jacob Zuma and will find it very disgusting for a fake racist apartheid agent to continue undermining the highest office in South Africa.”
Quite aside from Zille’s anti-apartheid credentials and the immensity of the accusation that she is a “racist apartheid agent”, in a country that struggles with both the highest rape statistics in the world and the highest HIV infection rate globally, for the (albeit rather over-aged) “youth” president to call Mrs Zille a “girl” and so vitriolically to silence legitimate criticism of Zuma’s high-risk behaviour is utterly reprehensible.
Responding to criticism, both Griffin and Malema transform the media from a watchdog to a scapegoat. When asked to clarify why he used to be a Holocaust denier, Griffin answered, “I cannot explain why I used to say those things … I can’t tell you the extent to which I’ve changed my mind … ” Instead, Griffin asserted that he was the victim of a media ploy to misquote and demonise him. With striking similarity, Malema — refusing to apologise for his assertion that the ANCYL “are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma” — asked, “why do you apologise for something you did not mean? … We never called on anybody to immediately take up arms”. Instead, Malema noted “the distortion, misinterpretation, vulgar insults and defamatory comments” that the media have directed at him.
Malema wants the media muzzled and the public broadcaster to be a party mouthpiece. He advocates that the government pay 60% of the SABC budget “to ensure that we are in control of what is shown on TV promotes the local creative industry (sic)”.
More concerning than the comments themselves is that they have become expected (entertainment?) from Malema and his ANCYL. While civic group Sonke Gender Justice and the opposition DA have laid charges of hate speech against ANCYL members, the mainstream media and the public largely laugh the comments off, amused at the latest Malema quote. There is no public outcry at media coverage given to Malema, nor are their calls for him to be better interrogated by the mainstream press. We don’t really take him seriously and don’t seem to mind too much if our media doesn’t either. This despite statements by President Zuma this week that Malema is being groomed for leadership and “worthy of inheriting the ANC”.
While we as Africans legitimately identify and call into question insidious and undemocratic elements in Britain’s relations with our countries (past and present), it would benefit our own democratic development were we to give more attention to Britain’s internal politics, namely, the active engagement between their established media and their uniquely multicultural, cosmopolitan citizenry. Despite the BNP being a marginal party with no political links to the BBC, the British public doesn’t simply laugh about or apathetically accept Griffin’s exposure on Question Time. Is it not time that we look at our own democratic structures and engage similarly with both our ruling party’s youth president and our media’s portrayal of him?
Janice Winter is programme manager of the Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy and has recently graduated with an MPhil in development studies from the University of Oxford, receiving a distinction for research on victims of political violence in Zimbabwe. A journalist by profession and a scholar by addiction, she is also passionate about social justice, identity politics, words and wine (not necessarily in that order).
What can one say about Malema? The only thing that comes to mind is a brat in a man’s body.
His childish remarks about Mrs Zilla, on her concern about irresponsible behaviour with regards to HIV, proves it
South Africans still feel indebted to the liberation parties of yore, whites because they maintain the status quo and Blacks because, well simply because the oppressor is one of their own.
The media is working hard to expose the fickle nature of our politicians but the electorate thinks its all a big joke.
The concept of Ubuntu is being abused by our elected leaders and the media, at some level, seems to be supporting them.
I notice the contra-distinction in the above two statements but the media favours the winner and changes its mind endlessly.
I am someone who does not find Malema in the least bit amusing. His comments and behaviour remind me strongly of all I have read about Hitler when he first started out. Hitler had the ability to captivate and motivate his audience, while moderate people sat back placidly believing that his ideas were far too radical, or right wing, or just plain unintelligent for him to gain any kind of following. I should think many of them found Hitler amusing to begin with, too.
I would prefer it if we started to take Malema’s idiotic comments seriously, and try to prevent history repeating itself.
I suspect that most white South Africans have just got to the stage where they are bored by the very thought of stooping to the Malema level and think that the electorate should do its own dirty work. If it can’t recognise idiocy, it deserves idiocy.
The ‘democratic’ government only embraces democracy as far as it suits itself. I think there will come a time when our own will suffer because we kept silent, as in Zimbabwe.
MHL, when you argue that “most white South Africans” think that if the electorate “can’t recognise idiocy, it deserves idiocy” are you not including those white South Africans as part of this electorate deserving idiocy? I don’t really understand why you are separating out white South Africans here?
Lets not be silly enough to believe that only whites find Malema disgusting. I am not white and I don’t agree with Malema.
Still we cannot disregard Malema. In SA its easier to play the victime than stand up and do something about the problems.Malema has done enough to unite the “sane people” in S A. The ones with values who can think for themselves and appreciate what a great country SA can become.Its time to unite and plot the way forward.
Am sure Malema just like me would be very worried if he were to receive any form of praise from white South Africans. He speaks the truth that many are scared to speak.
And as we know these days, ‘no white South African supported apartheid, so we must just move on and forget the past’. Zille is indeed a racist premier. How else would you explain her all-white provincial cabinet?
In no time, the sellouts who go out of their way to please the whites will be toppled because the vast majority of South Africans are still under the bondage of racism.
Malema was correct about Zille, and he is correct about hte majority of white South Africans
Lubabalo, I totally agree that far too many whites want to forget the past and ignore the legacy of apartheid that still defines the daily lives of so many. But by saying you would not want to receive any form of praise from white South Africans, you are guilty of continuing the very ideology that fed apartheid opporession: racial stereotyping. It’s time we confront, criticise and refuse divise and prejudiced politics – whether black or white.
I have to agree with Anne,
Malema uses words like militant, comrade, war, and uprisingon a regular basis and the poor and uneducated listen…
Lubabalo – I think you really do not like whites, in fact I think you even resent any black that does.
Shame man – that is a lot of negative energy to expend. Maybe all the whites will vanish if you visualise and concentrate real hard. Try it!
Didn’t work… did it…
Of coarse it seems that it passed over your head that the British media like ours created a mountain out of mole hill, then topped that with opinion formation with little additional breaking news, as oft done here.
The British Press though is by far more brutal than we would ever get here. That is its sole saving grace because of late they have subjected their readers to suposition and not hard nose investigative reporting. The standards in England have steadily dropped over the past four years. Funny that seems to have happend in SA as well.
I agree with Donald.
Nick Griffin is a white supremacist with proven ties to the KKK and other radical fascist organizations. I fail to see the logic in comparing Malema, whom I admit is a motor mouth that says dumb things on a regular basis, with that fascist swine -Nick Griffin. Are you implying that Malema is a “black supremacist” who has links to similar fascist groups? Hardly – Malema simply speaks his mind without any filtering whatsoever and some of it comes certainly comes across as hate speech that makes most of us cringe.
Malema’s ascendancy however, is the result of the divisive politics of the the racist DA (NP-lite) party. Why is it that even 15 years after our liberation, the upper echelons of the DA power structure is still dominated by whites? Zille’s personal attacks and the media’s vilification of Zuma before the elections, led to the rise of militancy in the ANCYL. The hypocritical DA vehemently opposes AA while turning a blind eye to centuries of white AA. Zille’s apartheid era mindset continues to elect old boys to her cabinet claiming meritocracy and the lack of suitable female candidates. Under Zille’s leadership Cape Town now resembles a European city, an enclave for the rich, while blacks are marginalized in their own country! With the DA’s divisive politics, it seems like Zille her supporters are going to get exactly what they deserve – President Malema!
Janice. Major newspapers like the Sun and the Daily Mirror in the UK support either the Labour or the Conservative party and consequently a party like the BNP will never get a real foothold.
These same newspapers will always defend freedom of speech but would never condone any form of hate or racist speech and people like Nick Griffin are quickly put in their place.
If Griffin was the leader of Labour or the Conservatives, and he publicly made similar statements in the UK as Malema has made in SA, he would be out on his ear in a flash.
That is the strength of the British media; they will not tolerate it, and they would join forces to ensure that a person like Malema was silenced and removed from his position.
Malema is a senior figure in the ANC and he uses his political platform to spread hate speech. This is totally unacceptable. South Africa does not need people like this, and if the law cannot silence him then all media organisations should stand together and see to it that he is silenced.
Banana Peel, what I find frustrating is that Malema is so easily dismissed as someone that only appeals to the poor and the uneducated.
I believe his appeal is much broader than that. He represents a dramatic shift in the perception of the electorate on who is pulling the strings.
He is the uber race card, that many would love to pull in their places of work, school and university and damn the consequences.
@Janice Winter: “Quite aside from Zille’s anti-apartheid credentials….”What credentials Janice? You can’t use whatever anti apartheid credentials your friends bestow on you to personalise issues and then cry foul when the other party responds in kind. As a black person anti-apartheid credentials mean nothing as every decent person had to have them. Ms Zille wasn’t doing anyone a favour by acquiring those “anti apartheid credentials”. It is therefore misinformed of you to expect that she should be given space to insult without being insulted back.
Dave, I certainly am not equating Griffin and Malema…I am comparing their divisive comments that can amount to hate speech and the media’s responses to them – particularly as Malema is a significant leader and we too easily gloss over what he says as a joke and fail to engage with the support he receives for such statements. It is a comparison of media and public response to divisive and threatening politics.
Sipho, good point that every decent person should have anti-apartheid credentials and we can’t rely on them. I was pointing out that she is not the apartheid agent spy Malema accused. I agree the DA is pretty much NP-lite and has failed to transform or offer a credible broad-based opposition. The quote was not used in support of Zille, nor in objection to criticism of her, but to the racist, sexist insults Malema masks as criticism. I feel this threatens to undermine the credibility of others’ viable criticisms.
Apologies to all who read ‘only white South Africans’ where I actually wrote ‘white South Africans’ and probably should have written ‘many white South Africans’. I phrased it that way because I don’t have considerable contact with many people of other race groups at the moment. I know what most of my old friends think and what those who speak out think, but they are definitely a minority. I would not presume to speak on behalf of others.
@Dave – “black supremacist” -careful how you go…that actually sounds quite spot on re Malema…have you not heard him speak?
Also how is the DA any different from ANC policy to select old boys, comrades who simply arent up to the task of running government?
Quoting Smuts Ngonyama: “I didn’t join the struggle to stay poor.” – The struggle is over, you have won now you have to run the government!
I dont like words like militant, uprising, comrades etc to be used in a democtratic country it smells like socialism and then communism to me, or worse Hitler…as Anna mentioned.
Oh and what is wrong with having a white DA leader? I thought this country had freed itself from the shackles of apartheid? It works both ways…you cant have your cake and eat it…unless you are a cadre that is.
When you say: “While we as Africans legitimately identify and call into question insidious and undemocratic elements in Britain’s relations with our countries (past and present)”, you do not speak for me. This is typical politically correct drivel espoused by white guilt ridden affluent middle class Social Study graduates; “passionate” being their battle cry. When you call the ANC a “respected ant-apartheid movement”, you are somewhat behind the times, since it should more correctly be termed a PRM (previously respected movement), since there is certainly nothing left to respect now.
most (not all) white south africans think we are so dull that we can easily delink socio-economic problems of the present day society flowing directly from the white supremist colonial-apartheid policy of segregation in order to appease their feelings to genuinely embrace the project of Reconciliation and Nation building they are constantly refusing to be part – every time you draw their attention onto harsh realities of our society resulting, largly & scietifically so, from the past apartheid historical system; they tend to reason it up, undermining the reasoning capacity of those who delivered freedom to them; on a silver platter, especially freedom of expression and an opportunity to live in an intergrated south africa, the fact of which they continue to ignore.
You try and introduce loberal policies such as AA & BEE just to balance the equation, they manupulate it to the bone-marrow while making sure that they run a media campaign to divert the attention of our suffering masses. They should learn by now that both our conscience & consciousness are not up for cheap arguments, for ours has always been about a scientific struggle to dismattle entrenched apartheid values and practice with progressive value-system envisanged in the freedom charter of 1955, 1993 interim SA Constitution as amended and subsequently the final 1996 draft. When statistics declares SA as the society with highest volumes of socio-economic inequalities – what do they do, they just continue reporting how stupid malema is – Who is fooling who here?
@Janice Winter – just to nitpick, you “forgot” to mention that Ms Zille called Julius “inkwenkwe” when she was addressing a Xhosa audience in the Cape. According to you was she telling the truth about Julius’s manhood. My point is that if we choose to be sensitive about insult we should condemn it whenever it happens, not only when it’s directed to those we sympathise with.
Personally I don’t think Julius should be ridiculed to self censorship as it seems is the strategy emanating from the white community. Before the elections we were told by Ms Zille and other DA supporters that Malema is recruiting members for DA with his utterances. The intention was to push the ANC leadership to panic and censor Julius. Fortunately this strategy was as transparent as the new attempt to muzzle Julius’s freedom of speech. Why not counter what he says with something that profoundly make sense. But you’ll need to learn the languages of the electorate to counter Malema.
@Joe, the South African media has been abused so much that it has lost any power to dislodge Malema. Also the new trend of abusing the courts to get at Malema is going to backfire and we’ll all be losers.Wait until the ANCYL adopt the opposition strategy of going to court at the slightest provocation, our courts will just perish and the law of the jungle will take over. Anyone can find a “hate setence” in every speech to refer to the equalty court or the seemingly partisan Human Rights Commission.
If you have done just a minor chek you wiould have realised that the statement insulting Zille which you attribute to Malema was actually issued by Floyd Shivambu.
@Sipho. Well put. If our media have not got it and your view of what could happen with the legal approach is even partially correct then we are in for a rough ride.