[image: The Times]
*Our justice is blind* *Charlatans mustn't worry: we fought for their freedom too* *Pallo Jordan, The Times, Johannesburg, 27 September 2010* The word "prejudice", the Oxford dictionary tells us, derives from "prejudge", the meaning of which is "to make a premature evaluation without due consideration of the relevant facts". Before we had sung a single note of Nkosi Sikelela to kick off proceedings at the national general council meeting of the ANC on September20, Justice Malala's column, subtitled: "Policy summit will be preoccupied with wrong issues" was published in these pages. Then came a harangue from our wannabe-Cassandra, predicting that the mid-term review conference of the ANC will concern itself with nothing other than jockeying for position, perhaps cutting a business deal or two, but will ignore the crisis in education, health and other areas of social delivery and will concentrate on suppressing the media instead. The first edition of The New Age came off the press three days later. A cartoon on the theme of Heritage Day depicted a typical South African youth, cellphone in one hand and a laptop in the other. Clustered around him like satellites were the words: "Twitter", "Google", "Facebook" and "YouTube". It reminded me of a policy paper on the information highway authored by Andile Ngcaba at the ANC's initiative in 1992. Shortly after the democratic government took office, it launched a green paper on telecommunications. This was followed by a white paper after Madiba addressed the International Telecommunications Union in October 1995. Mandela placed a number of challenges before the union: "As we head towards the 21st century, the development of a global information society based on justice, freedom and democracy must be one of our highest priorities. To this end, I would like to formally table for discussion at Telecom 95 a set of principles designed to enable the full participation of both the developed countries and the developing countries in building a global information society: - "We should strive towards global universal service in telephony and global universal access to the information super-highway; - "The expansion of the global information infrastructure should be based on partnership, and on rules of fair competition and regulation, at both national and international level; - "The information revolution should be geared towards enhancing global citizenship and global economic prosperity; - "A diversity of paths towards the achievements of national information societies should be respected; - "The evolution of policy for the development of an equitable global information society should be co-ordinated internationally to ensure the sharing of information and resources; - "The education of young people with regard to the skills needed for living in an information society should be prioritised." Talk of "heritage" usually refers to the past, but rarely our recent past. South Africa's recent past includes the information and communications revolution that has swept our country, along with the rest of the world, since 1994. South African youths who have the discretionary funds, like their counterparts in the rest of the world, ride the information highway thanks to the implementation of ANC government policies that arose from those initiatives. Today, any South African who has access to an information and communications network can download and read a daily newspaper from as far afield as Omea, in Sweden's Arctic circle, if he wants to. Those who wish to can enter into interactive conversations with virtual friends in the farthest point of Hokkaido, Japan; exchange music, videos, films and anything else that can be digitised with others in Tahiti, Shanghai, Anchorage or London. The coming of The New Age was received with scepticism. "If the business model doesn't work, will they make this thing sustainable in a different way, and on what basis would that be? Would that be a political basis?" asked Rhodes University's Professor Guy Berger. Anton Harber, of Wits University, called it "a healthy addition to the mix of voices" but said it was important that "they are clear and open about where they are coming from". There were the usual hysterical voices: "South Africa's Pravda? Or, a new Citizen newspaper, a la Connie Mulder and Eschel Rhoodie? Watch carefully that not a cent of taxpayers' money finds its way into funding this ANC party mouthpiece." There was the unspoken suggestion that something sinister was afoot. Yet politically aligned newspapers are the norm in virtually all democracies. "It is a commercial venture, 200%. That is why we took the top commercial, most successful, most award-winning company, Times of India, as a partner. They would not invest if it were not commercial," owner Atul Gupta tried to explain. Today, South Africa's airwaves are shared by hundreds of new commercial and community radio stations. Free-to-air television is no longer an SABC monopoly. All owe their existence to the policies of the ANC-led government. The ANC that Malala claims will "... shut down the media" is clearly one of his imagining, or inspired by the fumes at Apollo's temple. At the national general council meetings I rubbed shoulders with seasoned veterans in their 70s and 80s, now all grey-haired and the worse for the tough years. But I also exchanged greetings with a man we once called "Little Moss". He was in his late teens, a 1976 "stone thrower", when I first met him. I had drinks with a comrade, 20 years my junior, who is still recovering from the effects of brutal torture. A woman I had nicknamed "Mmathantisi", after the famous warrior queen, greeted me warmly. Another, now an adult union activist, had been detained and tortured during the 1980s. Along with hundreds of their peers, they had sacrificed their youth to fight for freedom. This is the ANC I know. Thanks to their efforts, today Malala enjoys the freedom to insult them with impunity in wordy, self-righteous columns in The Times, certain that he won't spend that night in prison. But don't despair, Little Moss; we were fighting for the untrammelled right of savants and charlatans to express their opinions freely! - Jordan is a former Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting and a senior member of the ANC *From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/article677175.ece/Our-justice-is-blind* -- You are subscribed to the "SOS Relay" e-mail discussion forum of the “SOS - Support Public Broadcasting” campaign. To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] or send an e-mail to [email protected] with "Unsubscribe from SOS Relay" in the message. Or, use the "Edit my membership" facility at http://groups.google.com/group/SOS-relay (where you can also find archives). For a newsletter, join "SOS News" at http://groups.google.com/group/sos-news Please visit the SOS web site at http://www.supportpublicbroadcasting.co.za/ -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
<<TheTimes.jpg>>
