Perhaps South Africa is the only democracy on the continent and the whole world that allows an oppositional press, especially print, to operate in a way that undermines the goals and gains of almost 400 years of liberation struggle.
This black government (sic) is the only one that I know in contemporary history that allows a press that is “out of sync” with the genuine aspirations and hope of the majority to operate as a powerful force, especially among the elite.
It would seem the press exists, primarily, to insult elected political leadership openly and undermine its integrity in the name of freedom of expression.
Every day of our lives we have a press that is calling for the overthrow of an African, primitive, uncultured and corrupt government by passive resistance or just plain dismissal.
The current Eishkom rolling power failures have worsened the situation by making people who believe everything they read in the press bolder in uttering racist statements about the failures of a black government (See Ivo Vegter: “Vindication for the racists“.)
You need no rocket science to see and understand that white-controlled business — which provides the life blood for the media — has entrusted the press with the responsibility to attack the integrity of the government constantly.
Thus many of the so-called leading commentators, public intellectuals, columnists and editors make up an influential intellectual mercenary army whose primary role and responsibility is to be stuck in permanent attack-dog mode: poor service delivery, Aids, Zimbabwe, unemployment, crime and corruption!
Mind you, there is no mention of racism, land dispossession, wealth monopoly, profit-mongering corporations or greedy multinationals.
They are funded by so-called private enterprise, partly openly and partly covertly (you only need to check the ad spend and sponsorship) by shareholders and institutions who do not desire to see economic transformation or black African political domination in the country.
It has never happened before in the history of a democracy. Even the British colonialists and the Afrikaner apartheid regimes would never tolerate anything like that for one second.
It still does not happen in today’s America, Russia or Britain, for that matter, where only “embedded journalism” is now the order of the day.
There is nothing wrong with freedom of speech or the press, per se. In this beautiful country it is, of course, protected and guaranteed by the 1996 Constitution.
But there is no freedom of speech or the press for the African majority who believe in and continue to support the ruling party, if you think about it. In fact, their voices are conspicuous by their absence in the mainstream press.
The media, especially print, can be considered, rightly or wrongly, the last bastion of white resistance to black African majority rule.
A close scrutiny of its production system — especially the behind-the-scenes sub-editing and editorial management ranks – shows that it continues to be flooded and dominated by unreconstructed white conservatives and political incorrigibles.
Remember, there may be more black faces that are the editorial face of most publications in the country but most people don’t know that true power that determines editorial content and ideological slant lies with the invisible white power ghosts in production and middle-management ranks.
What you read may be written by a black but it will, inevitably, have been filtered through a white, racist prism.
Thus the ideology and information flow that dominates the public consciousness of newspaper and magazine readers in the country is still controlled and determined by white power and prejudice.
Ironically, the “out of sync” level of the press in South Africa in the past 13 years has reached unprecedented proportions.
There has never been a time in the 400 years of South African political history that a popular and legitimate democratic government has been subjected to incessant assault to insult its political leadership openly and undermine its integrity.
Without apologising for the sins of the political fathers and mothers, this is what has happened to the post-Polokwane leadership, for instance, that has been called all sorts of names: rapists, fraudsters, criminals, robbers.
It is remarkable that support for the ruling party has dramatically increased in the elections of both 1999 and 2004.
The press had written off Africa’s oldest liberation movement by identifying and exaggerating the media-created groundswell of disillusionment with alleged lack of delivery or corruption, for instance.
The most recent media anti-establishment game, which is still going on, has been the outright condemnation of Jacob Zuma as a non-starter for leadership material of both the ruling party and the government.
In fact, the media had long declared him a loser before the Polokwane conference, right?
Let’s suppose the media were not “out of sync” with the thinking and feeling of the people on the ground but intuitively connected to the legitimate aspirations and hopes of the majority.
So: they would have commentators, public intellectuals, columnists and editors who would have known and understood the feeling of “the people”, especially at branch level. Right?
To give a true reflection of society, they would not have allowed themselves to be trained and manipulated by white conservative opinion to get into permanent attack-dog mode that would dismiss the choice of the majority. Right?
Of course, it is always easy to understand why pale natives will continue to report like foreigners in their own country: they do not understand black Africans because they neither speak their political language nor live among them.
Also, they have no respect for primitive, backward, uneducated, criminal and corrupt African leadership. Right?
The fact of the matter is: the media-manufactured content does not, largely, reflect the political reality of the black African experience or the choice of “the people”.
Of course, the recent ANC Today letter from the president was not an exhaustive argument to “prove” that, yes, the media “is out of sync with the society it exists in”.
But there is a large dose of truth in that observation, even if it is said by a popular-choice leader that the media do not take seriously.
Okay, suppose that the media continue to be “out of sync” with developments and trends in the country, especially among the grassroots. What will happen?
I suppose one way to check it out would be for the press to publish reports prominently on newspaper and magazine buying and readership trends. Of course, it is an open secret now how sales figures are, sometimes, falsified.
But what is important to note is that, increasingly, critical-minded people are cynical about what the media have to say about what is going on in the country.
It is now common to hear them say: “Look, who has got time to read white-sponsored black columnists whose agenda is to be hostile to a popular and legitimate black government? These guys and dolls have no clue about what is going on in their own country.”
I suppose the media can continue enjoying their constitutional right to freedom of expression.
After all, the much-lauded columnists and public intellectuals are not with the people and do not write for the people or about the people, but for each other.
Oh, yeah, the media themselves do not, for instance, reflect the demographics of the country. Indeed, they are out of sync with the society in which they exist!
I tend to agree with you – but as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather have a white, educated media with a strong sense of moral direction that is out of touch with the ‘common man’ (who is happy to vote criminals into government, amongst other things); than a government mouthpiece full of propaganda.
I am HAPPY that the media sees fault with the ANC NEC being composed of 16% convicted criminals. I want a media that is endlessly critical of the government, black or white.
It’s a good thing. And the fact that the ANC gets so upset about it speaks volumes of their insecurity.
Wow. Mr Memela, you sure sound paranoid and racist to me. You make it seem like that “white power” and those “pale natives” are truly out to get you. The conspiracy is growing, watch your back!
Your fear mongering with your unbiased claim of a “race mongering” press is no better than those trembling whites fearing for their well being from the dark black African man.
I considered Ivo Vegter’s piece only racist to those paranoid people who keep playing the race card: he was being very critical of government’s economic policies, and being hardly racist. But you choose to not comprehend such differentiations. An attack on the ANC is an attack on your skin colour. Ah, yes…because how could I, a white man and South African citizen, argue with that.
I believe you are mistaking a democratic government that is not coming to terms with its failures and a free press keeping count on those as some sort of attack. It’s called democracy, good sir, and if you cannot deal with that, than please move to any of the dozen or so other African nations that are constantly living under dictatorship and civil war and who have gone quite out of their way to condemn others, but never themselves for their own failures.
I found this piece of attack-dog “thinking aloud” most interesting, particularly in the way it illuminated the agenda of Mr Memela and by extension that of the audience he is appealing to. In short – shoot the messenger.
He appears to equate one of the primary functions of a free press, to criticise the government of the day when it fails the interests of the society it serves, as “calling for the overthrow” of said government. I must have missed those articles.
As the vast majority of South African journalists are unfortunately, for the purposes of his racist argument, black, he must paint them as helpless hostages of “invisible white power ghosts in production and middle-management ranks”. Note that it is middle management that he accuses because most of the senior management and, increasingly, ownership is also black.
He seems to believe that the issues of “poor service delivery, Aids, Zimbabwe, unemployment, crime and corruption” are of no interest to the population at large. There does not appear to be a blackout on the issues he appears to put above them in importance; “racism, land dispossession, wealth monopoly, profit-mongering corporations”. Unfortunately many of the current perpetrators of these cardinal sins (in South Africa) also seem to be black or black owned, including the author of this muddled piece.
Even in the supine American and British press “greedy multinationals” receive regular criticism. I do find it laughable that that a man who claims media as one of his interests is so out of touch with the state of foreign media that he equates the conditions that the press of those two countries operate under with that in Russia, in which independent journalists are regularly murdered.
The implication of his “thinking aloud” is that somehow the discontent with the South African government’s decision to refuse Escom permission to build, in a timely manner, new power generation facilities which has inevitably led to blackouts and the crippling of the economic growth potential of the nation is a press manufactured fantasy!
The South African people will not be fooled by this piece of double speak; they have a right to be angry. It is the current leadership that ”undermines the goals and gains of almost 400 years of liberation struggle” not the free press which only comments on the prevailing state of affairs.
Sandile,
Please point out to us where the media has lied or told untruths with regard Zuma and the ANC.
After 14 years in power why is it so blatantly obvious to all that the ANC (aswell as Zim)increasingly fear the media – not just local media but all investigative media.Why do you have to fear the press if they have nothing to hide .
The blatant obsession of the new ANC leadership to silence the scorpions for obvious reasons would have been effected long ago had it not been for the watchdog press.
Until the ANC Government can win our confidence through strong leadership of SA’s dynamic society the pres will play a vital role in trying to keeping them honest.
Mhm, Mr Memela, me thinks you are a little of the mark. I will agree with you that the likes of X Mangcu, M Makhanya, J Malala are nothing more than white apologists who are completely out of touch with black aspirations.
I also think there is no much difference between this bunch and the Zuma bunch. They are all looking after themselves and do not give a hoot about anyone else let alone the poor!
It looks like the Zuma ANC and the media deserve each other.
Is it not all about respect and are we not converting issues to race when they should be dealt with on merit.
If we were all green (same colour and no shades thereof) our issue (all of us) would be with a government that has made a mistake on eletricity power supply. We would all consider this to be a thing of incompetance, would we not? Are indigenous Africans actually happy with how our energy supplies have been handled as seems to be implied in this article.
Again there is a set of values on which we work. Are you saying that indigenous africans don’t see fraud as a serious offence. If so why does the government not change the law to allow for indigenous african law so that we know where the goal posts are and can then all commit fraud.
The ANC has repeatedly said it likes the constitution so then surely it must accept to be judged on its constitution.
I do however, share the view that a lot of the press does not think and so write like an indigenous african.
But what of the SABC, the news every night is an ANC propaganda show. Is that african news?
btw I enjoy your articles for precisely this point, to see SA through indigenous eyes.
“You need no rocket science to see and understand that white-controlled business has entrusted the press with the responsibility to attack the integrity of the government constantly”. Sorry, MrMemela,but you’ve lost me. Where is this integrity of which you speak? The Travelgate fraudsters who still sit in parliament? Tony Yengeni? Winnie the convicted kidnapper/fraudster, the thousands of civil servants who have been caught with their fingers in the till and remain unpunished? The ANC and the petrol money? The arms deal? If the ANC had any integrity all of these things would be nipped in the bud. They don’t and they aren’t. Don’t come with that tired old “racist plot” ploy. If the ANC cleaned out its house it might deserve some respect. As it is now, there’s not a chance of that happening.
Here’s something for you lot to get in touch/sync with >> http://www.abahlali.org/
Abahlali baseMjondolo don’t share your press conspiracy theories >> http://www.abahlali.org/node/232
If I replace White with Capitalist in the article above, I find I agree with a lot more with the argument put forth. Whether the Capitalist is White, Black, Green, Yellow or Pink, it does not really matter.
“We are faced with the virtually unique situation that, among the democracies, the overwhelmingly dominant tendency in South African politics, represented by the
ANC, has no representation whatsoever in the mass media.
We therefore have to contend with the situation that what masquerades as ‘public opinion’, as reflected in the bulk of our media, is in fact minority opinion informed by the historic social and political position occupied by this minority.”
- ANC Today
I think that this is true and it surely is a weird thing that so much of our media represents so few of our country’s people. And its a bad thing too.
For one, it really doesn’t do anything to help us white folk understand the thinking of the majority of our citizens. The parallel universe #2 people, as Llewellyn Kriel put it. Which is a very unfortunate thing because us white people can be pretty clueless sometimes.
For two, I think the fact that the views of the majority are not expressed in much of the media is a clear and unfortunate sign that the media (or the people who control the media) do not think very highly of the views of the majority. And I expect there are many reasons for this, including the fact that many people in the media probably just don’t have much personal experience with, or really understand, the views of the majority.
And so I definitely think that it is important to have more voices in the media, with different ideas and convictions, from different backgrounds.
But there are a couple of things I don’t appreciate about your blog post, Sandile, and Zuma’s ANC Today letter.
The media takes the government to task in many countries. George Bush, for example, takes a lot of criticism from the media. And thats a good thing, I think. In fact politicians from all over the political spectrum get attacked by the media in the US. Where citizens feel free to criticize the government without fear of government retribution… thats a sign of a free country. The only difference, perhaps, between media attacking JZ or Mbeki or the ANC here and media attacking politicians in the US (just to use the US as an exapmle), is that a broader spectrum of views are represented in US media. The US media seems to represent many more sectors of their population. Whereas, as ANC Today pointed out, our media often represents just a small fraction of our population.
But your blog, and the ANC Today letter, seem to say that the solution to this problem is to force the press to represent the views of the majority. Now that just sounds dangerous to me. By all means, let the ANC fund or promote publications that represent its constituency. I think it would be fantastic to have a more balanced view of things. But please, lets not see the government start censoring media it feels attacked by.
The solution to this problem, to my mind, is not to silence the voices of the people you don’t agree with, but to yourselves speak louder.
Why is it, that when “freedom of speech is a good thing” is being discussed, it always brings about a “BUT”…………..
You have free speech or not.Period
No if’s or but’s.
The term “black” as a socio-economic construct (not pigment) ceased to be with the demise of the black consciousness movement. It was Biko’s idea of unifying those who are/were politically, culturally, economically oppressed and exploited, gear them towards challenging their alienation brought about by economic racism and fight for liberation.
The homeland leaders and the “Coloured” and “Indian” representative council were termed non white and not “black” (out of the fold).
The usage of this construct then made a lot of struggle sense, and has played a crucial though underplayed part in the political freedom of all South Africans.
It aught to be pretty evident that “black” currently does not denote a homogenous grouping of people but rather reflects human beings showing the good the bad and the ugly.
South African history tells us that some white journalist currently exercising their voice(s) has earned it with their blood sweat and tears.
While some of the black struggle journalist now sells pussy on their centre spreads and fantastic fables further choking the traditional landless, poor and exploited. It beats the British version of the Sun.
Also many black journalists together with researchers have opted to become spin doctors –career choice (?).
Ryland Fisher has called for “no more first black stories, and he cites his disgust at … “I was the second black editor of the paper following Moegsien Williams”
Rather it should state that Moegsien Williams and Ryland Fisher were the first and second gatekeepers at the gates of the fourth estate. And by now Tyronne August knows “who goes there”? .
Years ago there was a popular phrase, “culture of silence” I would prefer free speech in any form to “culture of silence”.
Sandile, I like the rattling of your bones, the beating of your heart, your yearnings and aspirations for a newness that sings of social justice, economic freedom and people being able to dip their hands in the South African soil and sing.
But tell me
When you speak of black
Who are you taking about.?
Are you talking about saints, carpet baggers, romantics, dreamers, lovers warriors, fiends, murderers, arm smugglers, mercenaries on the continent
Who are you talking about. ??
Sandile, what a pile of garbage. All that 400 years of “liberation struggle” tosh… Who did worse damage to the amaXhosa nation than they did to themselves, thanks to pinning their hopes in the absurd teenage girl called Nonqwause back in 1857? And how not even one square kilometre of South African soil could be “liberated” by MK or any of the rag-tag so-called “liberation armies” in all those decades of their existence?
Eish!
You’re just mythologising, Sandile. Come back down to earth.
Almost every major newspaper in SA today is edited by a non-white person. The SABC is the regime’s lapdog. They hire, fire, decide the editorial line. But the people who buy the paper or who tune in to the channels are not going to be FORCED to support any medium who gleefully insult their views and who despise their values. Or oblige the advertisers who pay the bills to spend their cash in media who might offend them by doing so. Nor can the regime force the citizens to choose to support only the media who sing their praises.
And SA isn’t unique in that respect. Every democracy on earth entertains the same democratic idea. There’s not a whole lot of love for poor old Dubya from most of the major US media, other than the slavishly lickspittle Fox network who stay in business thanks to their Bible-punching viewership.
No, Sandile, the best way for the ANC regime to get better press is for them to behave better. Less extravagance, less accepting of bribes and kickbacks, less of the endless five-star hotel imbizoing and lekgotlaing and colloquiuming and yakkety-yakking and scheming and dreaming and a whole lot more rolling-up-sleeves and DOING.
“If I replace White with Capitalist in the article above, I find I agree with a lot more with the argument put forth. Whether the Capitalist is White, Black, Green, Yellow or Pink, it does not really matter.” Oupoot. Since in the early 1860s Capitalists has been pushing their agenda to cater for their bourgeoisie appetite to control everything against the working class. Surely, is not about whites, its the capitalist virus that is eating our society. In the 1860s it was the same argument (Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital -1848-1875). In the news this morning, it has been scientifically proven that the gab between the rich and the poor is widening. So, do you think the business practises of Tiger Brand have to anything to do with the interest of the poor?. The media represent the agenda of the capitalism not less than that. The media sees JZ as a threat to capitalism since the working class favours him.
Sandile ,
From this piece and your other writings it appears obvious that you have a deep dislike (dare I say hatred )of whites and everything they stand for as well as any institution or structures established by them .
It is equally obvious that you ,and by implication black leadership,hate criticism especially when coming from whites .
Would it not be more constructive if you spent your energy encouraging black leadership to :
a)Learn from their former enemies(take Japan as an example)and,
b)Prove their white critics wrong by performing despite past and current unfavourable circumstances c)Understand that in the modern global climate of striving for exelence nobody has any sympathy for losers.
You might be surprised to find that your former enemy will turn out to be your biggest asset on the way to building a better SA for all its citizens.
So any black person who disagrees with the version of reality dictated by the ANC, more particularly the Zuma faction, is essentially a coconut, more so if he or she is a paid columnist or journalist? Nice!
I find it interesting that you don’t actually dispute that the ANC leadership is made up of incompentents, frauds and thieves, apart from bringing up the tired old chestnut of race. Why do you see no problem with abuse of public funds and trust?
You article is also frankly an insult to the many journalists who found themselves in front of judges during the apartheid years for their criticism of the government.
Before calling me racist, you may want to re-read my post. I said racists will claim vindication, with justification, and though they’d do so for the wrong reasons, this remains a painful reality. Would the views of racists pain me if I was a racist myself?
Moreover, I explicitly said that the problem isn’t that a black government can’t run a country, but that a motley collection of socialists, communists, and Keynesian statists can’t run a country. That’s an economic theory argument, not a racial (or racist) argument. In fact, the Nats were equally bad at running the country, for exactly the same reasons. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the injustice of racial discrimination was their only failing. That would betray a sad lack of depth in your analysis and economic thinking.
So, having failed to make an actual argument, you do as white racists do, and treat political economy as superficial identity politics. You insult whites and slander blacks in the media. And by implying that incompetent or corrupt government is okay as long as the government is black, you insult competent and honest black citizens. But hey, whatever floats your rhetorical boat.
to equal Russian and British press is to equal anc and apartheid-time np. in russia there is almost no freedom of press for the time being, and yes the british press criticize Gordon Brown and his policies a lot for the time being.in fact they are extremely blunt.
Sandile, I’d have some sympathy with some of your points if you didn’t make up other things. Where and how has The Man described the ANC leadership and the people the party has deployed to government as “primitive” and “uneducated”? Don’t equate the evident lack of sophistication in the Zuma campaign — any populist campaign lacks sophistication in its presentation — with racist or paternalistic notions. Lack of political sophistication is a trait experienced universally.
Ivo has rightly pointed out that our politicians are liars, a label he presumably would happily attach to previous liars in government or tools like GW Bush, for that matter. He, and much of the media, has accused the government of incompetence and ethical shortcomings. Are you disputing that in the areas Ivo identified the government has shown competence? Are you claiming that the people you are defending should be exempt from criticism when they breach ethics?
You are propagating an idea that the population generally and the media specifically should not hold the government accountable for its many failings. That idea, Sandile, will kill the democracy which the struggle sought to create. And you don’t need white journalists to tell you that.
Another point: Sandile, your history is very incorrect. 400 years of liberation struggle. 1652 cape of good hope established and WOW the whole of southern africa was suddenly under Dutch rule.
btw 2008 – 1652 = 356 years!!!!!
Please write an article on how you get the 400 years? When was the first great trek? When was D’Urban established? Bulawayo? Maputo (LM)?
When did the Nguni people wipe out the Bushman?
Oh please Sandile, your philosophies remind me of how the old Nats used to think. You are so stuck in Orwellian clichés and the predictable orthodoxies of the moment. Have you been spending too much time with Ronald Kevin Suresh Roberts? Sounds like it.
Well, that person who pointed out that “capitalism” makes more sense than “white” nailed it. Of course the media principally reflects the wishes of the very rich.
However, the very rich are mostly white (or working for whites) and, overwhelmingly, whites tend to be politically sympathetic to the rich rather than the poor, whereas blacks tend to be the other way around (though not invariably).
So Mr. Memela’s point is valid, albeit he overstates it. The people who huff and puff about how he is wrong are simply giving away their own dishonesty or lack of thoughtfulness.
“Of course, it is always easy to understand why pale natives will continue to report like foreigners in their own country: they do not understand black Africans because they neither speak their political language nor live among them.”
What political language is that Sandile? The language of morbid corruption among top government, aids denial, “quiet diplomacy” on human rights abuses across the border…
Please stop playing the race card and start talking about the issues in our country.
I agree with Ivo & Steve, the article betrays a lack of depth in your analysis, and a deep dislike of whites and everything they stand for. Nothing good can come of a posting like this, it will only serve to stir up a hornet’s nest. I wish the writer would focus more on the issues at hand and stop banging on about race…
Sandile – you used to make me angry with your racist garbage but now you just make me laugh. Talk about being disconnected from reality!
“What you read may be written by a black but it will, inevitably, have been filtered through a white, racist prism.”
Well your little tirade seemed to filter down with its racist bile unaffected – bang goes that theory.
I am so tired of black people blaming everything that goes wrong in SA on whites- OUR government is rotten in the true sense of the word,there is no if or but about it (and if we are not careful, we mite end up like our other African states)- the truth needs to be told. yes, i agree there are positive things that have come from it, BUT the fact remains that they are criminals who do not deserve to be where they are- most of them belong behind bars. There is no way SA is going to be OK unless all the rotten apples at the top are removed.
I feel sorry for the man who wrote this article, he speaks only for himself and all the other black people who continue to deprive the “grassroots” of all they deserve, he speaks for all those selfish folk who choose to take our tax money and use it for their personal use….. and who unfortunately are black.
I am utterly disgusted at this article.
To the writer: I am ashamed of you, especially because you are black and u stand up for such garbage.
This article is so disconnected from reality it is laughable.
Sandile, I would say than I am ashamed of you, but in fact I pity you, for the fact that you attempt to peddle your racist agenda on this platform…
Go sandile go.
If you don’t like so called ‘white criticism’ of what is happening then I suggest the ANC cleans up their act regarding the : selebis, McBrides, ESkom fiascos, Chancellor House, arms deal bribes, crime capital of the world, support of Mugabe etc etc.
The circus just carries on in what is a poor excuse for government. Nepotism, incomeptence and kleptocracy run amok is more like it. Africa here we come.
As regards what goes on in the rest of Africa, well I wont even start. But it must be just white racism that explains why african nations are at the bottom of the world and the world’s worst basket cases. The worst of them is the one that neve had white colonialism. It had Black colonialism instead: Liberia.
The USA had white colonialism. It didnt do so bad beacuse of colonialism wouldnt you say?
No western nation would tolerate such a circus, which is why tou dont see such scandals in their press. But when the President of the USA got an extramariatl Blowjob, it was on for months. When you don’t have the disgrace for a government that we have, well then BJs are big news.
In SA you can pick and choose: murder, corruption, racketeering, fraud theft etc. Each day a new a new one so you dont have to repeat stories.
So even reporting on these scandals is white racism?
Lekker gese Ouens
I am glad that now so many people here are refusing to be cowed by white guilt and sit and listen to white racism being blamed for all the ills of government and Black society. Its like hearing the tired old colonialism story.
Its time this government takes responsibility for its failed socialist agenda. When any thinking person could see the failure of socialism around the world, the ANC chose to head down that path of failure. They focussed on name changes, and changed the name of SA from the economic power house of Africa to the powerless house of Africa.
We must look to Zimbabwe to see our future if we continue on this path.
Many of the the ANC are thieves and incompetent. Mark and Gavin Foster point that out. How many have criminal records? In what nation is a convicted felon allowed to stand for office?
Nadim, well said. It is their own paranoia. Every failure brings up the specture of the white ‘third force’.
Mr Rooke and Van Niekerk, Jon, yes you are correct. he chooses to shoot the messenger. The messenger is white so who will complain. Everyone knows the evil white man is to blame. Its easier than looking at the real cause of failure: the over promotion of incompetent people in the name of transformation. Jon, your posts get better all the time!
Owen, ou boet, once again well said. Incompetence is incompetence. They play the race card to deflect that accusation. Blame the ANC and they say we blame race. If the ANC were white people would ask them to resign.
I cant read on and compliment the rest of you! JimBob and Ivo, Sipho, Black, Craig, Gunther etc.!
Glad to see South Africans standing together in disgust at what the ANC is doing to our once great nation.
You ask why do we tolerate it? I ask myself that same question and the only viable answer seems to be that we shouldn’t. The media serves no productive purpose and it is for this reason that i ask, “why do we tolerate it?”
Before Polokwane, i was at this ANCYL meeting and it was basically composed of Mbeki and Zuma supporters. We argued, tactfully insulted each other, with some of us leaving the venue sulking, but what we all agreed on was the fact that we all hated the media. The media chooses to insult us so we shall have our revenge.
Ivo, with that article you wrote, you were in fact trying to justify your own racism. It’s too obvious my friend. Better luck at trying to conceal you racism next time. (riaan, if you wish for elaborate, then do not hesitate to ask before censoring my comments)
PS: Sipho isn’t black. Duh…
Mr Mamela,
I have enjoyed reading every one of your ‘Thought Leader’ articles. They are, at the very least, a refreshingly honest take on what is happening in South Africa.
Like you, I perceive one of the most intractable issues for SA to be the reorganisation of the state, the economy and society in general along lines which broadly cohere with the values, attitudes and hopes of the vast majority of the population.
In itself, this would be an extremely difficult task to accomplish. In South Africa’s case, it is being undertaken with an element of the population in direct opposition (or seemingly so) to these efforts. Your reference to minority control of the media is a case in point.
If the thrust of your argument (or at least, as I understand it to be) is that all areas of SA life is coloured by this intransigent minority ‘running interference’, the question must then be posed: what is to be done to remove this obstacle in the way of change?
To be sure, this may sound like a scary or ominous thing to say but, I feel, it is something that must be addressed if South Africa is to move forward. In any event, I don’t think the solution is all that drastic and is, in fact, happening out as I draft this.
With such large numbers of whites leaving South Africa in recent years (some say more than 1 million in 10 years – a figure, incidentally, that I think is far too low merely from observation and other anecdotal evidence), and the clear acknowledgement that it is the age group 20-40 is that most affected, it is likely that whites in South Africa will decline in numbers quite dramatically over the next 25 years. To overstate the point, if the reproductive element of the population is no longer present and emigration is ongoing, the end result must be disappearance.
In the long run, this can only be a good thing for South Africa. Clearly, whatever contribution whites may make to the economy country must be measured against that community’s attitudes towards, and responses to, the direction South Africans wish to take the country in. It’s all very well saying that ‘X’ skill is needed and all efforts must be made to retain it, when the wielder of that skill, simultaneously undermines and, indeed, suppresses the aspirations of those who have waited for so long to make their country their own again. Moreover, as white number s decline it is inevitable that replacement by South Africans will occur and this will hasten the development of a society truly freed from the shackles of the racist past.
The only problem with this ‘demographic solution’ is that it may take quite some time to bear its full fruit and the temptation will arise to search for a ‘short-cut’ solution to eliminating or, at least, neutralising the problem. This should be resisted for as long as possible, if only to avoid the West’s odium – something Robert Mugabe seems to have not considered in full.
This is not to say that nothing can be done to speed the process up. After all, something must be done to assuage the growing anger and frustration of South Africans if the more ‘gradualist’ demographic solution is to work. For one thing, whites should be constantly and publically reminded that it is the South African people who are setting the agenda and not them. Likewise, whites should be made aware that they are largely seen and known to be a divisive and obstructionist element within the society. Your article serves this purpose admirably.
Secondly, the renaming of roads and cities and the removal of statues whose main purpose has been is to perpetuate the (mis)perception about South Africa’s past and present must continue apace. It will remove constant reminders of the past for millions of ordinary South Africans and, at the same time, visibly remind the nation of their proud achievements. It also helps to disabuse whites of the notion that it is ‘business as usual’ for them – with a few cosmetic changes -but instead show them that the country is now a fundamentally different place and that it is they who are the outsiders.
Removing the Springbok name and logo and replacing it with something more acceptable will go even further to remind both them and ordinary South Africans that it is not whites who determine South Africa’s direction. Increasingly, the state should look to sidelining Afrikaans as a language of instruction. Obviously, there are issues relating to this in the Northern and Western Cape but for the rest it would not be an overly difficult task.
The effect of Affirmative Action and BEE is self-explanatory although the obstacles encountered by South Africans attempting to access the corridors of economic power in their own country suggests that this needs special attention and probably intensification. Mr Mamela, it is all very well to talk about the undermining of the South African state by a white ‘third force’ in the media but the real issue is the lack of control South Africans have in the decision-making forums of those organisations which set the agenda for the media. It follows that, once one replaces them in the boardrooms, the media will be compelled to abandon their obstructionism.
The upshot of the above is to ensure that whites are pushed to the margins of South African society and that, in so doing, they become so demoralised that they cease the almost seditious, machinations you refer to in your article; that they acknowledge that they remain in the country at the sufferance of the South African people, or, preferably, they leave. More effort needs to be put into obtaining accurate emigration figures and making these public. No one likes to be left behind and, if you lucky, you may be able to turn a steady stream into a torrent heading off to the airports.
One may think it is a drastic position to take but I cannot see a better or more equitable way of dealing with the problem. There is no way that whites are suddenly going relinquish centuries of assumed superiority over Africans and move towards viewing African culture, languages and values as equal to their own. Indeed, Mr Mamela, your article makes this very clear and that things are as bad as ever. The Skielik murders are also merely another manifestation of these attitudes, albeit a very extreme example. Should the whites remain in any significant numbers, they will be a thorn in the side of South African society for years to come and will distract the attention of government and its resources away from the pressing need to catch up the years of neglect.
By the same token, should whites remain in large numbers; South Africans will have a constant and visible reminder of their subjugation and humiliation. Moreover, the advantaged position whites have in relation to education and economic resources relative to most South Africans will mean that the formerly oppressed will continue to have to compete on unequal terms with their former masters. Hardly a fair outcome, is it?
I am sure that many peopled will find this all very extreme but, in my opinion, it is possible conclusion or settlement for the serious issue Mr Mamela highlights in his article.
It is also a conclusion which offers something to whites too. Firstly, in leaving it will remove the constant fear so many of you have that you or your families will be the victim of a vicious crime because of the colour of your skin.
Secondly, within a generation your descendants will be able to abdicate responsibility for the centuries of harm their ancestors inflicted on South Africans. The generation that emigrates, however, may have to put up with some suspicion and a measure of hostility from some host country citizens but it is a small price to pay for eventual anonymity.
Thirdly, whites can make amends for what happened in the past by leaving South Africa. How? Well, every position vacated by a white can go to a deserving South African without needless employment tribunals or court challenges over EE. Merely leaving removes someone who, for historical reasons, unfairly competes against South Africans for jobs. It will mean one less person in the country who is out of step with the values, desires and hopes of the South African nation. In terms of housing, every time a white leaves, another property becomes available for South African occupation; another farm may be more easily returned to its rightful owners; an impoverished and vulnerable rural community breathe a sigh of relief. The list could go on and on. The point I am making is this: by leaving, whites could be paying off their debt to a society which was purposely and consciously distorted for their own benefit and which is now trying desperately to right so many wrongs.
Emigration is thus largely a win-win solution to this problem of an indigestible minority. The biggest stumbling block to this is that there are still a number of whites who operate under the notion that South Africa is their country. It is not. Thankfully, many whites, especially the younger ones are realising this and are emigrating.
I am one of those white people. I left South Africa at the beginning of the ‘Noughties’. I think I made the right decision and Mr Mamela’s articles certainly seem point to that. I hope my leaving SA will be of some benefit to you. At the very least, I am not around to plot anything against South Africans as we whites seem so keen to do
That South Africa is an African country cannot be denied and the sooner whites realise this and that they are do not belong in the country the sooner it will be better for all. As you so aptly point out, Mr Mamela, whites are dabbling in things they should keep well away from and I thank you for highlighting what so many whites in South Africa are doing. If it is this bad in the media, just imagine what is going on in other industries and society at large!
Mr Mamela, your articles have convinced me that it is something inherently wrong in our makeup and this makes us hateful and spiteful towards South Africans. In overcoming this obstacle, I wish you the very best of luck. I think I have given you a few pointers that may help in ridding your society of this pernicious evil. Remember, alienation is the name of the game. After all, every one-way ticket out of SA means you can sleep that much easier at night and in say, oh, 25 years you will be to sleep totally undisturbed save, perhaps, for the odd bad dream about that terrible people of the past.
Yours
Rooinek
Rooinek,
Thank you for clarifying what Mr.Memela and by implication the black leadership of this country are trying to tell whites.
My business is going on sale today setting in motion my plans to immigrate for the good of the majority.
@Rooinek
If you are really white, and such a self hating one, that you are happy to see a race that has built up SA for nearly 400 years die out, then I am glad you took your own advice and emigrated.
The sooner your type is out of the white SA gene pool the better. Preferably as you say, before reaching your reproductive years. Then the whites interested in making SA work can co-operate with Blacks that are sick and tired of ANC corruption, thuggery and incompetence, and want the same thing.
I think this may interest you. Its called its a wonderful race.
http://seanbryson.com/articles/wonderful_race.html
@ Liansky: Your comment offends me, not because you’re calling me racist, which, if true, would be entirely beside the point, but because you presume that I’d be stupid enough to try to “hide my racism” by writing about it. Besides, how can I “justify my racism” while “hiding my racism”?
Can one not talk about the likely reaction of racists to an event without being tagged racist oneself?
Please, if you want to address the point, address the point. Hurling abuse is not only puerile, but it is a failure of reason. By the same twisted logic you seem to be using, I could argue that the vehemence of your claim about me smacks of defensiveness, that it’s merely projection.
There, how’s that? Now we’re both racists, responding to a blog post by a racist for racists about racists. Cool, innit?
This exercise, for me, is an attempt at getting South Africans to be honest with one another in terms of who we are and where we come from.
Also, the other nobler motive is to get whites – in the collective sense – to stop thinking of themselves as separate from their black counterparts. It is only because some whites, many of them do not see their fellow blacks as equal human who deserves to be true to themselves and be self-determining. Blacks, just like whites, are entitled to their mistakes and learn from them, for instance.
yes, there are a lot of things that have happened as a consequence of colonialism and they have been a benefit to whites. These include this sense of false superiority.
For us not to allow the past to divide us, we must face the historical facts and how they perpetuate themselves in today’s society.
personally, I am not interested in the finger-pointing exercise of making people feel guilty. It is just that a lot of things have gone unsaid to please whites. This has over the last 14 years built a lot of frustrations, anger and resentment against whites and their black cohorts. It is no justification but imagine what things are said when a group of marauding thugs breaks into a house and hold up a family. There is a lot of centuries old resentment going on there.
i guess I can go on and on. However, let me conclude by addressing myself to Rooinek: thanks for your contribution. It is most welcome.
The idea of this article and the chief aim of the struggle was NOT to drive the white man to the sea. South Africa belongs to everyone who lives in it. My understanding is that it is ALL our responsibility to make this country work by promoting justice, justice and social justice. We fail to do that at our own peril. At the end of the day, we all have to be agents of the change we want to see.
What are you going to do in your own little world to make this a working country that delivers “a better quality of life for all its people” and not just those who cooperate with white racist oppression and exploitation?
Sandile,
South Africa’s transition is an ongoing one (the old refuse to break down and the new gasping to be born) despite what the architects of the truth commission has tried to sell and still selling elsewhere.
The other day I heard a whisper, a society without bigots is an unhealthy one.
The way we get to where we want to be – ought to be more than whisperings.
Keep on talking there is more coming from the woodwork.
Mr Memela, what an interesting reply to the responses you received to your original racist drivel. I understood you were unhappy about the white media being allowed to criticise the black government. Now it appears you had the much more noble motive of helping us south africans understand who we are and where we come from. At least I can tell that you are not a criminal. If you were, you would know that breaking into a house and robbing someone (black or white) has very little to do with centuries of resentment. Else your house in Soweto surely would not need any burglar bars or security, right? No Mr Memela, it has to do with greed, lack of moral integrity and human values, which come from lack of proper education and upbringing. Being poor does not help, but many criminals are rich and many poor people are not criminals, so that is no excuse. The government’s tolerance toward crime also does not help, because as long as criminals can get away with it, crime will prosper. Worst of all are the examples of many high profile government officials, who are themselves criminal and corrupt. Fortunately I am allowed to say this because I am not the media.
What we do in our own little world to make this a better country is only a small part of the solution. What the government does, the officials it appoints and the policies it adopts are much more critical issues which will determine SA’s future, and if these are amiss the media should say this loud and clear.
Mr Memela if you wish to contribute something to this country as a writer, I suggest you lay aside your racist sensitivities and put away your old drums of white supremacy, colonialism and apartheid, and start facing the present reality. For your next article, why don’t you investigate the history of countries where the leaders called each other comrades, and evaluate whether it is good for SA to have a ruling alliance with a communist and socialist agenda.
This is so African!
Spend 50+ years fighting for your freedom from the slave owners then fail to deliver on any of your promises to the people that voted for you. Corrupt all the government systems because now it is your turn at the meat pot.
When the people start complaining about the reports of corruption, crime and gravy train riding you ban free press!
If I did not know better I would swear you all attended the same political university.
You talk about the whites that believe colonialism makes them better than blacks but you sir are now looking down at your OWN people and thinking of them as slaves!
What century are you living in. In 2008 politicians can not censor the media simply because it is so diverse and resourceful. Instead of electing leaders who are on trial for corruption and are fighting for their personal freedom from jail, why don’t you elect credible individuals. Thats what people do in other countries
@Jack West
They cannot appoint credible individuals. They don’t have any. They are essentially a gang of thugs and criminals.
Your request is like going to a prison and asking ‘can’t you people elect an honest person as spokesman?’