Ridiculing Zuma fuels ANC's anti-media frenzy

17 January 2013 - 02:02 By Brendan Boyle
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Brendan Boyle
Brendan Boyle
Image: The Dispatch

There was a yellowing telex message stuck to the wall of the United Press International bureau in Johannesburg in the 1980s which asked: "How far is the beach from the sea?"

It symbolised the fraught relationship between the frontline reporters covering the uprising against apartheid in South Africa and the sub-editors in Washington who seemed always to believe they knew better. It reminded us every time we went across to the clattering telex machine to receive the latest outrage from "the foreign desk" just what idiots they were.

The message arose from a report we had sent about an international beach volleyball match being played, I think, in Port Elizabeth, and to which the slowly faltering white government had admitted a few black players on condition they did not swim in the sea.

We knew, of course, that what the Washington sub-editor wanted to know was how far from the forbidden water's edge the games were being played. But in the poisoned climate of internal UPI politics, where youngsters who had never set foot outside the United States challenged us hour by hour, we preferred to focus on the absurdity of the question as sent.

I wonder whether something similar happened in the relationship between Jacob Zuma and his ANC acolytes on the one hand, and the unmeasured millions on the other who do not share their adoration for the man from Nkandla.

Zuma recently appealed to black Africans not to abandon their traditional culture too quickly. It was an address which reflected the deeply traditionalist views of the man the ANC delegates in Mangaung opted to return for another five years as party leader.

He pointed out quite correctly that some white people appear to be more concerned about the welfare of their dogs than they are about the health and welfare of black people within their orbit.

The comments caused an uproar. In fairness to his critics, the comments followed upon many others equally unworthy of the most senior politician in the country. He has said in the past that he would, as a youngster, have beaten any gay person who confronted him, that he believes God has sent the ANC to rule, and recently that it was a good thing his daughter was getting married at last.

"I wouldn't want to stay with daughters who are not getting married," he said of Duduzile's impending nuptials.

"You've got to have kids. Kids are important to a woman because they actually give an extra training to a woman, to be a mother."

Just last week, in unscripted remarks to ANC funders at an anniversary dinner, he appeared to endorse the very corruption that his party has vowed to root out.

". you can support and be a supporter, but if you go beyond that and become a member, [and] if you're a businessman, your business will multiply. Everything you touch will multiply. I've always said that a wise businessperson will support the ANC . supporting the ANC means you're investing very well in your business," he said.

That comment seems indefensible to me, but when we're reporting or analysing the head of our state, we do need at least to try to understand what it is that he means to say, and to debate the big and lasting issues he raises.

Sizwe Cele, an ANC branch treasurer in KwaZulu-Natal, wrote on the PoliticsWeb website this week that the selective reporting of Zuma was part of a conspiracy.

"It does not matter how good the point is that the South African and ANC president is raising, but if the media choose to make a mockery of it so it will be to the detriment of those the point was aimed for. Given the frequency and the consistency of this cockeyed reporting one would not be blamed to conclude, as I have, that there is a strong media conspiracy against President Jacob Zuma," he said.

It was different last year, when the DA leader, Helen Zille, referred in a Twitter message to young people leaving the Eastern Cape for a better education in her province as "refugees".

In that case, it was not the media who ridiculed her but the ANC, which watches her every movement and comment for opportunities to chip away at a reputation for governance, credibility and delivery that Zuma must envy.

Zuma is his own worst enemy. He is glib when, as a president responsible for the reputation of the entire country and economy, he should be thoughtful.

But those of us who did not celebrate his Mangaung win will not win over those who did by ridiculing the man.

He was not appealing to Africans to be harsher on their dogs. He was trying to buttress an ancient culture against Africa's winds of change, and that is what the nation should be talking about.

Should South Africa become more like the walled time capsule of Nkandla, or should Nkandla become more like our modernising, progressive country?

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