The ANC was conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s debate on whether the media is under siege or not. This absence meant that there was no genuine debate because only one of the four panellists, Mabhuti Matyumza of the ANC Youth League, felt that the media was not under siege.
The ANC was conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s debate on whether the media is under siege or not. This absence meant that there was no genuine debate because only one of the four panellists, Mabhuti Matyumza of the ANC Youth League, felt that the media was not under siege.
He was perhaps alone among the 400 odd people at Noluthando Hall who did not have any problems with the ANC’s Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal.
Grocott’s Mail was acutely aware of the importance of having the ANC at the debate to defend its position. We therefore invited three senior members of the local ANC, including Cacadu Regional Deputy Chairman, Lungile Mxube, to participate in the panel discussion.
None of the them made it and one of the three lied to our news editor, telling her he had missed the debate because he was in Johannesburg, even though reliable sources informed us that he was in fact in Grahamstown.
We cannot be sure why the ruling party did not participate in a debate concerning legislation that it ardently supports, but we can surmise that either the local ANC does not agree with the national leadership, or it does not think it is worth discussing trivial issues such as media freedom.
On the other hand, it could be that the local leadership of the ANC was simply too afraid to defend an indefensible position in a public forum. Only the representative of the ANCYL, Mabhuti Matyumza had the courage to do that.
