The Zuma government is laying the grounds for a fresh onslaught on the free press, says Max du Preez.
Pretoria - Three attributes entrenched in our nation are preventing South Africa from sliding into the territory of a failing state: we are a constitutional democracy, we are an open society and we have stability. But take one of these pillars away and we could be on the skids – we have become considerably more fragile as a state over the past few years.
The governing ANC constantly reassures us that it wasn’t planning to change the constitution. I believe the ANC. But what concerns me deeply is its apparent campaign to subvert and sidestep the constitution. In the end, this could be as damaging or even more damaging than changing it.
What concerns me most is the governing ANC’s obvious war of attrition against the media. If it continues to limit the space for free speech and the free-flow of information, we will gradually become a more closed, inhibited society and the government will become increasingly authoritarian and drift even further away from the people. Corruption will flourish. Eventually it will threaten our economy and our stability.
The ANC did not behave like this during the presidency of Nelson Mandela and even of Thabo Mbeki. I have no doubt in my mind that the onslaught on the media is a result of the growing culture of corruption and ANC’s gradual loss of power at the polls.
Nowhere is the strategy to control information and public opinion clearer than at the SABC.
The government has until recently at least pretended that it respected the independence of the public broadcaster. President Jacob Zuma’s administration has no stomach for such subtleties.
The SABC’s three television channels and many radio stations in all our national languages are still the primary source of information and opinion of the vast majority of the people. The ANC needs the SABC to be its exclusive propaganda machine.
As the minister of what can rightfully be called the Department of Propaganda, Faith Muthambi, said recently: “The effective use of the 18 radio stations of the SABC stands between us and reaching millions.”
The ANC had its commissars at the SABC for more than a decade. They came and went as new factions in the ANC became stronger or weaker. Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the SABC’s newly appointed chief operations officer, is the Zuma clique’s man. Typical of Zuma’s sledgehammer style, Motsoeneng’s only job is to make sure the SABC serves the interest of the president and his government.
It will be deeply damaging to our society if Motsoeneng’s appointment was not successfully challenged. The fact that the Public Protector found him to be dishonest and guilty of maladministration before his appointment is not the only concern. The way he has been campaigning for sunshine journalism and the licensing of all journalists by the state has shown that this man is no believer in free speech.
It was under his leadership that the SABC banned opposition parties’ political advertisements during the election. It was during his reign that we heard that spooks were monitoring SABC journalists.
Muthambi’s appointment to the new super-ministry is crucial to the government’s new strategy to control information and public opinion.
She was, insiders tell me, purely a Zuma appointment and has already shown that she will serve him blindly. She has a budget of more than R400 million with which, she has promised, she will use a “professional army of communicators” to bring about an “information revolution”.
Muthambi was the minister who confirmed Motsoeneng’s appointment despite the recommendations of the Public Protector. And now she has declared that she wants the right to appoint future SABC boards all by herself.
Parallel with this strategy to turn the SABC into Pravda is a strategy to attack and bully the print media. Hardly a week goes by without the secretary general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande or one of his colleagues declaring that the press is a lying, unpatriotic bunch serving narrow sectarian interests rather than the people.
It seems likely that the ANC is preparing the atmosphere for a new onslaught on the media. This could be a revival of the idea of a state-controlled media tribunal, the licensing of journalists or new legislation along the lines of the Secrecy Bill.
It is critical for editors and journalists to resist all efforts to limit their freedom. We are going into a phase we last saw during the 1980s, when the so-called alternative media fought a tough war against the censorship of the apartheid government.
The owners of our media houses will feel the pressure from government and some may be tempted to choose to safeguard their investment by cosying up to government.
Editors and journalists – and the reading public – should not allow them to give in to that temptation.
* Max du Preez is an author and columnist.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
Pretoria News