05 May10

Topics:Politics 

A while ago, I wrote about how it looked like the ANC [in control of the government] was aiming to implement laws in South Africa which would mean that I'd have to get a blog post approved before I could publish it. You know. Similar to the way the Nazi party did stuff before world war 2 and the way the apartheid government did to South Africa for the longest time. All of this in the name of "protecting you".

So now it seems their youth league has similar thoughts. I am not amused. Here's a snippet from a movement that seems to be under-way in the social media channels:

#SpeakZA
Bloggers for a free press

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of ANC Youth League Spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the secretary-general of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money-laundering practices of Dumisane Lubisi, a journalist at City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa.

We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but an insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the youth league president.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

For me, the solution to the problem would be to cut off the money. We as tax payers should hold off on paying tax for a while and let the 80% of the population that are not paying tax know that we are keeping the country floating. We demand service. We demand that the media report truthfully on the service that is being delivered. The cover-ups in government organisation. The fact that the department of health cannot account for ~ R950BILLION... be it loss, be it corruption, be it bad processing.. this is a story the media should report on. Those responsible should go through the courts and be tried and face the music.The media should be there to tell the story. There should not be ONE man alone who approves what goes to court and what doesn't. The media should be able to report on this. People wonder why there's a brain drain in our country.

But it is the media who are the voice. It is us who are the people who should rise up and do something about this BLATANT misuse of the power we gave them. We should remove their power.

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