This morning a high-profile meeting between the ANC and the Eastern Cape media is taking place in East London. Scheduled speakers at the meeting include Phumulo Masualle, ANC Chairperson in the Eastern Cape, Premier Noxolo Kiviet, Chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) Mondli Makhanya and the Press Ombudsman, Joe Thloloe.
This morning a high-profile meeting between the ANC and the Eastern Cape media is taking place in East London. Scheduled speakers at the meeting include Phumulo Masualle, ANC Chairperson in the Eastern Cape, Premier Noxolo Kiviet, Chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) Mondli Makhanya and the Press Ombudsman, Joe Thloloe.
The meeting was prompted by outrage on the part of the media over an incident in May in which an ANC leader openly incited party supporters to commit arson, and the ANC's pathetically lukewarm response. ANC Nelson Mandela Bay chairperson, Nceba Faku, encouraged a large crowd of supporters to burn down the newspaper offices of the Port Elizabeth-based Herald.
He also made a number of racist statements that are clearly unconstitutional and have no place in any civilised society. Faku’s incitement to commit criminal acts dovetails perfectly with the current anti-media groundswell that has taken hold of the ANC.
Faku himself, and several other top ANC leaders, categorically defined the media as the enemy in the run-up to the May local elections, and now the ruling party is bulldozing through Parliament legislation custom-designed to protect and entrench corruption and incompetence at all levels of government.
The media in general, and Sanef in particular, are deeply concerned about this anti-democratic change that has taken hold of the ANC.
Today’s meeting in East London is aimed at addressing these concerns. The reason citizens, including Grocott’s Mail readers should be livid about the ANC’s anti-media position is because, if it were up to the ruling party, we would almost never report on the goings on in the municipality.
There would be no information about funds that are squandered, money that has not been properly spent, potholes in our roads, water outages, poorly maintained infrastructure and dysfunctional schools.
You, dear ratepayer would not have even the slightest inkling of how your money is being misspent.
The only information you would get about the municipality would come exclusively from the municipal communications department.
If you would like to know what that would be like, we urge you to visit the municipality’s website: www.makana.gov.za. If you would like to know what is happening at meeting, visit our Live coverage of the ANC/Sanef Media Summit in East London page.
