Turning in graves

The Big Read: One of the fundamental requirements for any rational discussion is familiarity with the facts relevant to any matter under discussion, as well as respect for the truth. It is a great pity that some journalists who pose as political experts and analysts are nothing but an acute embarrassment and do not have the slightest respect for the truth.

Giants such as Percy Qoboza, Steve Biko, Can Themba, Nat Nakasa, Dan Tloome, Ruth First, Joe Gqabi, Sol Plaatjie, John Tengo Jabavu and other heroes whose powerful pens spewed the revolt and sense of purpose from their powerful minds and clarity of thought must be turning in their graves at the sight of such gutter journalism.

Sadly we have to contend with the curse of such modern day journalists as Justice Malala who abuse of their penmanship in the columns offered to them by their media houses.

The insulting, irrelevant and ignorant vitriol by Malala against the ANC and its leader Comrade Pallo Jordan - in The Times edition of October 4, "The ANC did not set us free" - is a case in point. It does not only say much about Malala, but it also says much about the supposedly watchful eyes of The Times editorial team. The article descended to a new low that cannot be left unchallenged in the interest of the truth and respect for fellow South Africans and The Times' readers.

From its inception, the ANC has never purported to be a saintly organisation that has never committed mistakes. The ANC has always been the first to own up to its slip-ups and actively correct them. What is missing - deliberately or perhaps out of sheer ignorance - from Malala's commentary is any reference to the courageous act of the ANC leadership to own up to abuses.

It is a fact of history that in 1984, the ANC - of its own accord and under the leadership of then president, Comrade OR Tambo - instituted the Stuart Commission to investigate its camps in Angola. Though the report was not exhaustive, it truly reflected the situation in Angola and proposed to correct the wrongs identified. The ANC leadership acted on the recommendations and improved conditions of detainees in our camps, ensuring they were in line with internationally accepted standards in situations of war.

It is common knowledge, except to Malala and The Times, that in August 1991, the ANC released persons whom it had apprehended as "secret agents, spies, agents provocateurs and hired assassins" employed by the apartheid government's security services.

On their return to South Africa they made grave allegations of having been beaten with iron bars, bicycle chains and barbed wire while they were in captivity. The ANC did not shy away from this and through its president, Nelson Mandela, undertook a full investigation into the treatment of detainees in ANC camps through the Skweyiya Commission.

The ANC also instituted the Motsoenyane Commission and made submission to other external commissions like the Human Rights Commission, the Goldstone Commission and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to own up to its excesses - unlike the media, which flatly and arrogantly refused to discuss and own up to its role under apartheid.

The deliberate omission or perhaps his ignorance of these public facts enables Malala to play up the threat posed by the abuses as if they are current and therefore relevant to the discussion Comrade Pallo Jordan raises about the ANC's position on media freedom.

Despite his detention and experiences in ANC camps, Jordan declares that the ANC has, as an organisation stood for and fought liberation and democratic rights of all South Africans, including freedom of media.

We are not going to say much about the tone of Justice Malala's article and his selection of words, save to say they are reflective of a child who was badly brought up, or who was left to grow on his own and adopted foreign and regrettable mannerisms.

There are yet other disturbing aspects to Malala's article. His version of the truth about which organisation led the struggle for the liberation of this country and who really delivered the country to the democracy that it is today - and who fights to protect these freedoms, to paraphrase him, would be laughable if were it not so offensive. Many South Africans sacrificed their lives, their liberties, limbs even their families fighting for the liberation of this country under the banner of the ANC.

Malala has the right to have his say, but to deny, airbrush and erase from history the centrality of the ANC in the struggle for liberation and enormous sacrifices under harsh conditions in exile under the apartheid government's hit men, just to have a go at Jordan is deeply offensive and hurtful - and it is defecating on the names and memories of our martyrs, lying in graves on foreign soil.

Malala and The Times should know that hundreds of committed activists are yet to be accounted for as they disappeared - here in the country and abroad. It is inconsiderate and [bordering] on criminal conduct (defeating the ends of justice) for Malala and his paper to conceal such information that will help concerned families and our liberation come to terms with our dark past and for authorities to act on behalf of those affected in the interest and pursuit of justice.

We dare Malala to stop his beer-hall rumour mongering and hearsay and to bring forward any information at his disposal on the poisoning of Thami Zulu. We dare him to expose those whom he knows are responsible but "are now snugly in Cabinet giving us legislation such as the Protection of Information Bill" to allow his namesake to run its course.

Did the majority of freedom fighters not belong to the ANC and have they not fought for media freedom as well as other rights that enshrined in our Constitution? Indeed, most of them did.

The Times, permitting such a revisionist interpretation of the history of our struggle, also displays another disturbing tendency. It echoes apartheid propaganda as we knew it during the struggle to liberate our country from the apartheid system. We dare The Times editorial, owners and management to look through the apartheid propaganda archives to see if they will not find similar sentiments.

The Times and others have been at pains to prevent a public discussion about media transformation and accountability. They had the nerve to instruct the ANC to remove the discussion on media ownership and transformation from the agenda of its National General Council. They failed.

If this is not another naked display of abuse of trust bestowed on Justice Malala and media to exercise their role in society to inform, educate and shape opinions of society, we do not know what is.

It affirms our view that we need to help the media to play its meaningful role in the building of our national democratic society.

We again ask: What is our recourse under these circumstances of the Malalas and their media?

• This article has been edited for length only. It originally appeared in the ANC's newsletter, ANC Today, on October 10. Read it in full here: http://bit.ly/b1czEN