Solidarity should attack the right targets

Dirk Hermann, of I-have-lost-my-appetite-to-eat-at-Spur-again fame, is at it again.

The chief executive of Solidarity trade union has taken aim at Jacaranda FM, demanding "action" after Tumi Morake, a morning breakfast show host, committed the gravest sin of them all: she spoke honestly about apartheid and, even worse, refused to take her words back afterwards.

The self-appointed spokesman of the Afrikaner people, who tackled Spur a few months ago, last week dived into the debate over Morake's comments with an open letter titled, "I am tired of racism bullies".

He was responding to Morake, who used a bicycle analogy to explain apartheid.

Morake said that instead of being punished for stealing another child's bicycle, the thief and the bicycle owner now had to share the bike and play together. It unleashed a storm of continuing social media abuse.

Solidarity has put a lot of effort into having a go at Morake. Its lawyers sent a letter to Jacaranda FM demanding recordings to ascertain if it could lay a racism complaint against her. It delivered a memorandum wanting an apology from Jacaranda FM for "offending" listeners and action against her for "abusing" the Jacaranda FM platform. Hermann said he was not asking for a boycott against Jacaranda FM, but it did not take his supporters long to climb onto that bandwagon.

There's a sense of distorted priorities here. The Solidarity-Jacaranda FM sideshow happens, for example, while one of the country's biggest auditing firms, KPMG, attempts a mea culpa over its role in state capture.

All South Africans would enjoy far greater benefit from organisations such as Solidarity if they focused their efforts on holding entities like KPMG to account. If you want to launch a boycott, rather target those who are bringing South Africa to its knees and leave a radio presenter speaking her mind alone.