OPINIONISTA: The stakes could not be higher for journalism in the 2019 national elections By Siviwe Gwarube
The crucial role of the press in any democracy can never be understated. The South African press has an ethical and professional obligation to report and reflect the state of our country in a fair and balanced way to the consumers of their craft – the people of South Africa.
The past decade has been instructive for many of us who work with the media in South Africa, not only as communicators but as consumers of their work. The truth is that Selfe was in fact on the party’s list; something a simple search would have aided with establishing this. Zille is serving her last term as the DA’s Premier of the Western Cape, so she is not running as a candidate on any of the lists.
Disinformation is a certain type of fake news which is often difficult to identify. Another seemingly harmless incident took place in 2018. Anreporter attended a DA rally and quoted Mmusi Maimane as having said that people call him “Mini Mandela”. The journalist either recklessly or maliciously left out the full quote which would have given the necessary context. Maimane was narrating how people often label him as a sell-out as some had labelled former President Nelson Mandela as a sell-out too.
People like Pravin Gordhan, Vincent Smith, David Makhura, Parks Tau, Ayanda Dlodlo and indeed Cyril Ramaphosa have been touted as being part of some good faction of the ANC. They were labelled as people who had to painfully contend with Zuma and his associates as though they have not been active role players in propping up a president who presided over the worst years in democratic South Africa.
This interrogation was crucial for the consumers of these platforms but it was recklessly omitted. Ultimately, over 50% of South Africans were still poor, almost 10 million people were unemployed, millions of people were still unsafe in the communities and children continued to drown in pit toilets. Nothing has changed for South Africa. The ANC has simply played musical chairs.
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