By Udo W. Froese,
non-institutionalised, independent political and socio-economic analyst and columnist, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
IF South Africa’s academic analysts, the corporate media barons and their friends think that the ruling African National Congress is on a losing ticket by not receiving more than 50 percent of the national vote in the recent elections, it does not mean that the ANC would not get over 50 percent during the next national general elections.
Just three weeks ago the corporate mainstream media and its academic analysts put it on record that the ANC would be the biggest loser, since its voter base is disappointed and angry, particularly over the spending of R246 million, which the government incurred for president Jacob Zuma’s private residence, Nkandla. Much noise was also made when the Congress of the People (COPE) broke away from the ANC. The media hailed it as an alternative to the ruling party. Sandton-based Primemedia particularly, led the barrage by giving COPE huge media coverage. Meanwhile, leadership differences led COPE to split into many factions. Out of 36 seats in parliament, 23 left COPE to rejoin the ANC.
A countrywide media campaign was rolled out to undermine the ANC. The endless maligning of the ANC and the country’s president Jacob Zuma seemed the ticket for all opposition parties, the corporate mainstream media and its academia to win their concocted lottery of horrors. According to them, the ANC remains “leaderless, corrupt and incompetent,” whilst COPE could not do anything wrong, quite similar to Helen Zille and her Democratic Alliance (DA), Mamphela Ramphele and her AGANG SA and many other opposition parties. In fact, the neoliberal media hailed Ramphele as an alternative to Zuma even before the launch of her political party.
Enter Julius Malema and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). They are looked upon as an alternative to the ANCYL. The voting public would ask, why does the corporate mainstream media fail to query opposition parties on the content of their policies? It is one thing to be a celebrity public speaker and quite another to lead an organisation where policies are not clear, except undermining the persons of president Jacob Zuma, and other ANC leaders. By relentlessly attacking the ANC and its government, the local media failed its customers by not informing them on the policy options presented by the various parties and formations.
One had to hold one’s breath when the DA claimed the ANC has good policies, but suffers from lack of management. No one interrogates those statements. The public out there remains uninformed. It reveals the bankruptcy of opposition politics, media and its academic analysts. What alternatives do the political opposition, academia and corporate mainstream media offer? They failed their customers by not presenting factual and contextualised diagnostic reports and analyses. Critical questioning of the policies of the opposition parties is virtually non-existent and is avoided like the plague. South Africa’s mainstream corporate media operates in the typical US-style of soundbites littered with twisted facts and propaganda. The media’s general approach to the broad majority of the indigenous population and its leadership has never changed. It remains narrow and shackled. As much as media freedom is proclaimed, the reportage reflects a unanimously wishful opinion of the self-anointed ‘captains of industry’. The above explains clearly how hapless the media’s customers have become, whilst seeking the truth on the political and economic landscapes.
Observing the media, it seems that narratives, script and style are all the same across the media board, as if only one author/editor/publisher writes for and distributes to all of them. As a result, only the ANC and the government are held to account. This is correct. However, what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. The political opposition and the corporations should be equally scrutinised and held to account. But, the contrary seems to be the case. Opposition leaders have become the darlings of the corporate media.
The average journalist is unqualified and thinly educated, backed by out-of-touch academics, whose daily focus is to badger the ANC relentlessly since 2009, when Zuma took over from recalled, former president Thabo Mbeki.
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