MEDIA LET THE NATION DOWN ON ZUMA

As a former member of the mainstream media I must admit to be ashamed of my former colleagues in the news media. That President Zuma has been vilified by the media is no conspiracy theory but a reality that has festered and constantly reared its disgusting head over the past four years.

Recently the media has been speculating on who would be standing by Zuma’s side at the inauguration, seeing that he has two wives. It’s a curious question yes, one that might be asked in passing. But it does not warrant any form of lengthy discussions as seen and heard in the media.

A step backwards reminds one of the 2009 general election period where our media latched on to the two-thirds obsession. Presumably the new ANC leadership would change the Constitution if it won by such a margin. The possibility of an ANC two-thirds majority caused such widespread fear within certain media houses that no mention of the 2009 election would go by without “two-thirds” being on the agenda. Mind you, the ANC has held such a majority in Parliament over the past five years and such concerns never seemed to be high on the menu. Maybe journalists and editors trusted the Mbeki majority more than they do a Zuma one? As far as I can remember the only political party that said it would change the Constitution should it win a two-thirds majority was COPE, not the ANC.

Take a step back and recall the dropping of all charges laid on him by the NPA. At the press conference where acting NPA head Adv. Mokotedi Mpshe made the announcement he was clear, concise and polite. He poked no one and did not raise his voice. Come the Q&A (question and answer) session what do our esteemed media reps do? The all ask him the very same question but in different ways. No journalist that I heard at the post-announcement conference asked a question which had not been answered by Mpshe in his extensive statement. So much so that he kept having to say “as I have previously stated”. Many journalists, despite fat notebooks and digital recorders, just don’t listen. I had to keep referring to these media gurus’ names because they sounded like the opposition parties.

And then they attack the Advocate. One lady from CNN, who used to work at etv where she was taught to be a feisty and catty interviewer, went as far as telling the Advocate what his job description is. “Your job is to prosecute criminals” she said very self-assuredly. I know all about media freedom and the right to speak your mind. But had the lady in question (whose name is known to me) was probably not taught manners at her home by her mama. Asking a question and getting the answer you want is not about barking at the subject but at making them feel like they have not lost anything by answering you. It’s about making them feel comfortable to a point where they will reveal things they would not normally reveal. This CNN girl managed to achieve quite the opposite and the NPA representatives ended up not entertaining her at all. It just seemed to me that she wanted a different outcome to what Mpshe had presented and was left to question all that had happened. I wonder what her bosses had to say about her “interviewing” skills.

Three steps back and you have the removal of Thabo Mbeki from office by the ANC’s NEC. Again the media claimed Zuma was spearheading this hunt for Mbeki after the latter was said to have interfered in the former’s prosecution by a judge. My information actually says the Zuma was one of only a few voices in the NEC that called for the NEC to let Mbeki finish off his term. Had Zuma been successful in convincing the NEC, the COPE may not have existed.

In between there have been cartoons created with showerheads on Zuma’s head. He has been called the kangaman (referring to the rape case he won), 100% Zulu boy (thanks to supporters) and other names. Our media even made up a phrase that said judgement in the Shabir Shaik case included words to the effect that there existed a generally corrupt relationship between Shaik and Zuma. The judge who presided over the case later denied his statement ever made such a reference. Again, the media being creative.

Lastly but not least, “Zuma said he wanted his day in court but now he keeps ducking and diving”. A very popular mistruth probably started by some inept editor and carried over like a surfing wave by other equally or more inept media houses. Zuma has never said he wanted to be charged. What he said was that accusations and statements must be tested in a court of law where everyone is equal. The day after he was elected as president of the ANC at the Polokwane conference in December 2007 he told the media this very fact. “Who wants to be humiliated by a trial?” he asked. “No one.” Certainly not him. Yet this misstatement continued to be used in newsrooms all over the country each time some delay happened in his trial.

Ironically the same said journalists had never before, not even during Dr Nelson Mandela’s reign, had such wide open access to the president of the ruling party. They had never been able to ask anything they wanted to ask of the man they knew very well would one day become President of the country. One might think they were so not used to chatting to such a person that when it happened they were astounded in disbelief.

CAST YOUR X WISELY

With Election 2009 now in full swing, parties across the country are pulling no punches in trying to secure our votes. The ruling ANC has now flighted its first television ads and I must say, they make for really touching viewing. The theme is still the same; alleviate poverty, make a better life for all etc. These days it’s not enough to be the ANC, you have to go out and work for all the votes you can get. Plenty of work ahead for the party since people are increasingly becoming very disillusioned with its record of delivery over the past 15 years in government. More and more we see it losing by-elections in towns where communities are getting tired of rhetoric, corruption and lack of houses. The people see ANC fatcats in their posh cars and houses, dining in the finest restaurants and their kids getting the best education while they (the people) struggle to meet basic monthly expenses. I personally know people who have been empowered by Thabo Mbeki’s administration being empowered over and over and over while others have doors shut in their faces. Promises are just not going to cut it this time and loyalties are changing. To add chillies to the wound they have Julius Malema who, with every passing day, inflicts more pain in the ANC than any opposition party. Ironically the very youth he is supposed to represent are the ones he irritates the most. Come end of April the ANC will be licking its wounds and counting casualties caused by young Malema.

The Democratic Alliance could be a winner in this election of fighting and disillusionment. Helen “GodZille” Zille has rebranded the country’s biggest opposition party as a party of “the people”. We see this daily in media images where she is campaigning and you only see black people alongside her. Sadly the DA is not expected to win the election precisely because its leader is white. And a woman. Mzansi is still a very much race-based society and we are still paternal in our instincts. Besides that, GodZille is much more concerned about Cape Town than anything else. How else do you explain the leader of the biggest opposition party in the country deciding that she would rather be a mayor than an MP in parliament where she can take on her foes directly? She’d rather send in the weak Joe Seremane, the man she totally annihilated for the leadership of the DA when Tony Leon retired.

There is of course always Shenge and the IFP but that bunch doesn’t appear to be headed for anything significantly higher than what it garnered at the 2004 affair. The IFP has not transformed itself from a tribal gathering into a political party. Its leader, who started the Inkatha (later called the IFP) after leaving the ANC in the 1970s, is still in that position. Sure he claims his party keeps asking him to stay when he wants to leave but no reader of this blog is young or naïve enough to believe that lie. Leaders leave their positions all the time, even when parties say they want them to stay. In fact that is the mark of a great leader.

Bantu Holomisa has his UDM but no one can say exactly what the UDM plans to do and HOW it will do it. In fact who can tell me what the UDM has done for them in or outside of parliament except to rubbish the ANC? There’s no creativity there, the ANC is easily rubbishable. Holomisa’s credibility as a pseudo-visionary went straight off the cliff with his bold prediction in 2007 that Thabo Mbeki would convincingly defeat Jacob Zuma at the ANC conference in Polokwane. Anyone with enough eyes could see that was never gonna happen.

Then we have the PAC and the PAM, two parties of the same mother. It’s a bad idea because you are splitting votes that way like the MDC of Zim. Azapo will not play a role in Election 2009. Its ideas are good and form the ideal for returning Africans to their rightful place in their own minds first. Implementation is another story altogether. Azapo’s ideas need proper marketing but I have a feeling the Azanians would rather spend what little budget they have taking care of their leaders than selling themselves.

Lastly we have the new kid on the block which is the Congress of the People (CP). Formed out of anger for the new ANC, the CP has almost become the main opposition party through extensive media coverage. Leadership squabbles and Malema-like utterances by its leader Terror Lekota will dent its chances no doubt. For those seriously disenchanted with the ANC, the CP looks to be the best alternative. Whether this turns out to be true after the polls, only time will tell.

Votes are a precious commodity and we only use them once every five years. So let’s vote for people we know will look out for us in the best possible way. There’s no greater travesty in the democratic world than a wasted vote. Actually there is; it’s failure to follow-up on your vote, to keep checking if it’s being used in a good way or if it’s being abused.

WE CAN SECURE OUR OWN FOOD!

When my family moved to a Boksburg suburb in 1995 I was amazed at how many farms were in the land around the suburb. It was almost as if we’d moved to this massive farm where there were houses here and there. Farms on the land grew vegetables like beetroot, cabbages and the usual mielies.

Close by there were about three fields growing these and other crops. Five years later there were two fields. Today ne former field is barren and where there were two fields before there are now more houses. To me that says housing is a priority over food, which doesn’t make much sense. Food is the most important need that humans have. It sits on top of the food chain, so to speak.

I read a report in the Sunday Times earlier today and it said Mzansi is now a net importer of food, which basically means we buy from outside countries more than we export to others. Thinking about those disappearing farms it made me super concerned that our population is growing but yet our food production is not growing as fast. Not only is farming becoming less and less attractive as a career choice for young people, but it’s also not encouraged by society. Parents would rather see their children becoming BEE moguls than farmers. Even our role models in business are not people who struggled to build businesses from the ground up; they are people with enough political and societal clout to go out and borrow money in order to buy into a business built by someone else. I guess farming is not sexy and glamourous.

The little communities all over the country, from Upington to Umlazi, from Musina to Malmesbury need to get back to community farming. We need to start thinking about providing for ourselves as much as possible. Have you been to the supermarket lately? Have you seen the prices they put on food, on meat especially? The other day I was shocked to discover that a pair of avocados which I used to buy for less than R20 three years ago, are now over R30. A loaf of brown bread goes for R9 right now. Food prices are not going to decrease because input costs like fuel, labour and interest on farmland (mortgages and bonds) keep increasing.

In cities and towns we have an obvious space problem yet a garden the size of a door can make a huge difference to our everyday food bills. In the rural areas where they have vast tracts of arable land there seem to have been a death of will in people making their own food. I don’t know if it’s because they are expecting the government to feed them or if it’s just pure laziness. Whatever it is it contributes towards pushing up food prices because the fewer people make their own food, the more they rely on supermarkets to provide it, the higher prices go up (demand and supply). As a kid I had a small garden at home which produced veggies like spinach, carrots, green beans and cabbages. Not difficult to run and the results were excellent.

*picture courtesy of Photobucket.com