MK Foundation members march to Tiso Blackstar Group

Members of the Umkhonto We Sizwe Inkululeko Foundation (MKIF) marched to the offices of the Tiso Blackstar Group in Johannesburg on Friday.

The group of about 100 people was escorted by police vans while they chanted and sang struggle songs in front of the media company’s office.

The protesters said they were demonstrating against white monopoly capital.

An exasperated MKIF marcher‚ who identified himself as Felix Mtiro‚ said the role of the media in the lives of black people is questionable.

"How can you gossip? It doesn't mean‚ when you are on the other side‚ you are better than anyone. The fact that you are behind the gate is why we are fighting. It's so painful to be poor. What the media is doing is a disgrace. You use the media to distort what we are fighting for. We want Anton Rupert to leave‚" Mtiro said.

According to Mtiro‚ the media are protecting white monopoly capital.

"What role are you playing? Black people are being used to take news across and distort our message. We want the economy. They [media companies] are the ones protecting white monopoly capital‚" he said.

The marchers had banners with messages such as: "SA media has history of integrity and it's all gone now‚" and "Lame stream media must fall."

A statement read out by NJ Motseki at the company's gate said the media must stop deliberate negative reporting.

"This overall anti-black economic empowerment and anti-radical economic transformation is furthermore advanced by a general trend of black-profiling‚ where a disproportional negative bias is displayed with regards to the dissemination of stories that have the deliberate intention to project black people (African in particular) in a negative light‚" Motseki said.

The foundation said it would not tolerate racism and exploitative‚ anti-African behaviour to continue.

"We further call on Tiso Blackstar media to stop with their deliberately negative media reporting and campaigning against the radical economic transformation of our society in general‚ and to specifically support the economic empowerment of black (especially African) South Africans. Until they do so‚ we call on all patriotic South Africans to boycott the media that they produce‚" Motseki said.

Tiso Blackstar Group owns The Times newspaper and TimesLIVE.