Comments on: The people our national debate does not see or hear

By: Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:33:49 +0000

This may be taking this debate off in a different direction, but what about Manto and her impact on the lives of the poor? If you can’t afford medical aid and private hospital care (as I can, and for which I am truly grateful), you are at the mercy of a largely uncaring and ineffectual public health system.

To be poor in this country is to draw the short straw in so many ways.

By: Jay Moodley

Jay Moodley — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:23:53 +0000

Dear Steven,Very valid and points indeed.Govt Officials and civil servants(some call the UNCIVIL servants!) have no sense of accountability to the people they purport to serve.They are too busy feathering their own nests and that that of their family and friends.Appointments are made on political patronage i.e “struggle credentials,not on the ability to perform the task at hand.Just who is being served?definitely not the underpriviliged.

By: aksn1p3r

aksn1p3r — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:37:18 +0000

Without reading your article, id like to just add that whilst everything is expanding, it seems to me that we all forget about the underprivileged.

Does any web-statistic really have anything to do with those living without proper infrastructure and access to information., let alone being illiterate.

Miss South Carolina was probably directing her weird answer towards our country for a reason.

By: Ebrahim Harvey

Ebrahim Harvey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:43:02 +0000

Steven, it is precisely because I for long have thought and seen how this issue has been neglected by commentators and sections of the media that I devoted 3 articles to this matter, in the M & G and the Cape Times over the past 18 months. But it is not enough to publicly write or speak out against it, very important as that is. No, more importantly, is get back on the streets and protest against the repressive police actions against legitimate protests and how repressive aspects of apartheid-era laws have been used by the ANC against protesters. That will achieve much more than words wherever it is aired, though it must be combined with it.

By: Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen

Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:53:19 +0000

I get the point now. And I absolutely agree with your clarifying comment. (I did not mean to imply that you were undervaluing the role of NGOS and local newspapers.) Funnily (well perhaps more revealing than funny), the first profile I read of Abahlali baseMjondolo was in Drum magazine.

By: Steven Friedman

Steven Friedman — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:12:00 +0000

Thanks for this, Ebrahim.
No, you are not wrong – we are just talking about different problems.
I said that local newspapers had covered this incident and I agree that organisations such as the FXI have raised the issue. My point is that this very serious problem has not filtered into the mainstream debate.
Some of our national newspapers are, rightly, vigorous commentators on the latest abuse of power within the political elite. But how many op-ed pieces, columns and comments mention this issue? Just about none. Electronic media also have some vigorous talk shows. When did any of them show any interest in claims of police violence against protesting shack-dwellers?
In a week in which one of our prominent intellectuals said he cried at the claim that a newspaper editor might be arrested – on the basis, as Robert Brand point out in his latest Thoughtleader blog, of very flimsy evidence – I don’t hear anyone crying over the possibility that South Africans may have been beaten up in the streets for exercising their rights.
My point is not to undervalue the role of those who have raised this issue but to point to the massive gap between the mainstream debate in print and electronic media and the experiences of grassroots people.
Remember that the local newspapers and NGOs who are raising this issue are reaching a very small section of our society. The mainstream debate which is ignoring it reaches everyone who consumes media in this society. If abuses of power affecting grassroots people don’t make it into the mainstream debate they will most likely never be addressed.

By: Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen

Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:46:24 +0000

Thanks for a very thoughtful read. I agree with the general point that commentators should be very careful not to forget grassroot struggles. I however disagree on the specific example. There are intellectuals – commentators, acedmics, organic intellectuals – that have raised the issues of police demonstration from day one. Organisations like the FXI have done the same. Some local Durban newspapers have covered the longstanding dispute between Abahlali baseMjondolo and the city council in great detail (at least that what it looks like on the internet). The coverage and commentary obviously be more widespread and prominent. Perhaps, sitting in JHB I am wrong about this?