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28 January 2014
DA Candidate List:
Media Partisanship, Planting Agents and Tokenism
Sizwe Nyenyiso, Battle of Ideas Commission, SACP, Brian Bunting District
Our country prepares for the 5th general elections since the collapse of the
white minority government and political parties of different ideologies are
revealing their policies and preferred candidates for public office. The 5th
general election will continue to deepen our democratic gains and to protect
freedoms that are guaranteed in our Constitution. The Constitution provides
checks and balances to safeguard our democracy, including free press and
other independent institutions. The Revolutionary Alliance of the ANC, SACP
and COSATU fought for these guarantees and entrenched them in the supreme
law of the land, the Constitution. It is therefore upon every South African
to protect these hard won democratic gains from any abuse and manipulation.
The demise of white minority government did not automatically translate to
disappearance of white minority monopoly interests; to the contrary, they
continue to subvert the democratic gains. The Democratic Alliance became the
bastion and agent of monopoly capital for perpetuating the legacy of
apartheid using the media and remnants within the post-apartheid
administration. While the liberation movement has championed media and State
transformation to reflect the aspirations of the poor marginalised majority
population, the remnants of our past continue to undermine these
institutions. In pursuit of their narrow party political interest and the
broader neo-liberal agenda, the DA plants its agents to these social
structures in a manner that poses danger to our young democracy.
The media as one of the most important social instruments is expected to
play a critical role in informing and educating the public in a manner that
is neutral, balanced and non-partisan. This neutrality can only be protected
if those in the newsroom do not harbour any political agenda in conducting
their work. This ethical requirement and expectation is a key pillar in
promoting the integrity of journalism. Judging from the recent developments,
it is clear that this ethical consideration has been badly betrayed by the
cosy relationship between the DA and the media. The inclusion of journalists
in the DA's candidates list compromised the values of non-partisanship and
neutrality by those who are expected to inform the public about the
diverging views in society.
It is not surprising but concerning that a number of journalists, including
controversial Donwald Pressly is linked to the DA election list. Donwald
Pressly's work as a DA representative in the Cape Town Press Club was
noticeable over the years. As the Chairperson, he made the Press club a
fiefdom Democratic Alliance and created a fertile environment that
prioritised the articulation of DA policy and political direction. He was
badly exposed when he tried to subject Minister Joemat-Pettersson to the DA
kangaroo court in May 2012. Minister Joemat-Pettersson had to protest after
it became apparent that the press club breakfast that he was invited to was
instead a DA accountability mechanism. As Cde Jackson Mthembu correctly
characterised the Cape Town Press Club, then, that "Pressly presided over an
institution that was founded on questionable grounds. given the fact that
generally the membership of a press club is a preserve of professionals in
the media space who are expected to be objective and non-partisan when it
comes to party politics."
Based on this evidence, it is clear that the SACP was correct in
characterising commercial media oligopolies as an anti-majoritarian
liberalism that seeks to discredit and portray our congress movement, the
ANC, as corrupt, while profiling the DA as a holy political entity. We are
concerned that the manipulation of social instruments for narrow political
ends risks the erosion of our democratic values. We view this as a serious
assault to our democracy, a threat to a constitutional guarantee of freedom
of press and a risk to the integrity and objectivity of the institutions
that are entrusted with balanced reporting. This confirms the correctness of
the Party resolution to transform the media in particular. In this context
the SACP's call for review of media ownership and the extent of
monopolisation to ensure diversity and tolerance to diverging views is more
urgent.
This list further exposes the DA agents that were planted in public
institution, not for serving the South African public but to pursue the DA
agenda. The SACP has cautioned against the risk posed by monopoly capital
who constantly seeks to infiltrate the commanding heights of the society
through aggressive lobbying and placement of candidates with like-minded
candidates in key positions. The planting of these agents to steal and
volunteer state information to the media capital, collaborate with the
private capital to amass State contracts and set up government institutions
for failure is now publicly exposed. It is no longer secret that these are
DA agents in pursuit of foreign and local capital agenda, hence the
ideological relationship with the media capital. The case in point is the
appearance of both Glynnis Breytenbach and Ricardo McKenzie in the DA's
election list. These are few of many agents that were planted by the DA and
international capital in the State apparatus to serve its narrow political
interests.
We are also not surprised that the DA is playing to the public gallery and
the psych of our society by deepening its Black Political Empowerment (BPE)
policy. DA has always been known as a reformist entity that recycled
remnants of Nationalist Party, hence its strong support base among the white
population. While the DA is predominately white, it is dreaming of capturing
the so called "black vote" to capture state power in order to continue with
its anti-working class policies as it is the case in the Western Cape. This
task has proven to be close to impossible. The DA has therefore hoped that
the only way to attract black vote into its block is to capture the
inexperienced black youth through foreign money and brand them with
neo-liberal policies. This act of tokenism and BPE is done with a hope that
these young people drawn from the squalors in our impoverished township will
in return deliver the black vote to the DA in a "return-for-investment" kind
of exercise.
However, this strategy has failed and continues fail. It is therefore
important for the South Africa society not to be fooled by this act of
tokenism while the DA is firm in its belief that where it governs every
black person that exercises his/her right of freedom of movement is
characterised as a refugee. This hypocrisy of prompting BPE while
protecting white interest in the economic participation should be understood
for what it is. This is the same DA that its attitude against the
empowerment of the previously disadvantaged was extremely exposed through
their opposition to the Affirmative Action and the Black Economic
Empowerment. South Africans must therefore vote for the future that is
inclusive and that embraces the diversity of humanity. It is our conviction
that ANC is the only vehicle to deliver a society that benefit to the wealth
of our country regardless of gender, colour and religion
. Sizwe Nyenyiso is a member of the Battle of Ideas Commission of the
South African Communist Party in the Brian Bunting District.
Those interested in publishing this article, or other articles by the same
author, should contact Masonwabe Sokoyi on 074 177 2068, or e-mail
[email protected]
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