Political Missive
Lizette Rabe on News24 wrote a great column on how freedom of expressions is slowly but surely been done away with in South Africa.
She writes of two instances: One where our erstwhile Minister of Safety and Security spewed forth from his foul mouth that those of us complaining about the high crime in SA should shut up or move out of the country. The other was the cancellation by the SABC, of a program on our fun President Thabo. “Legal Issues” was cited as cause for cancellation.
This is not the first time this item has reared its ugly head.
The deliberate suppression of crime statistics comes to mind. The Stats SA debacle when they screwed up the inflation figures and happily blamed “the previous regime”. Oilgate, which has died an (un)natural death. The list goes on.
Do we have a free press in SA? Well they try. But ultimately the press knows one thing. South Africa is effectively a one party state. Therefore there will be no change in Government in the near – or not so near future. Ergo, they cannot afford to piss off the powers that be.
We have a wonderful constitution. This wonderful constitution is negated by rather scared individuals in government where the last thing they want is free speech.
But hey. We voted for them. So what the hell. It is our fault. One day the uneducated masses will realise this. I am, however, not holding my breath.
And therein rests my political post for the month.
She writes of two instances: One where our erstwhile Minister of Safety and Security spewed forth from his foul mouth that those of us complaining about the high crime in SA should shut up or move out of the country. The other was the cancellation by the SABC, of a program on our fun President Thabo. “Legal Issues” was cited as cause for cancellation.
This is not the first time this item has reared its ugly head.
The deliberate suppression of crime statistics comes to mind. The Stats SA debacle when they screwed up the inflation figures and happily blamed “the previous regime”. Oilgate, which has died an (un)natural death. The list goes on.
Do we have a free press in SA? Well they try. But ultimately the press knows one thing. South Africa is effectively a one party state. Therefore there will be no change in Government in the near – or not so near future. Ergo, they cannot afford to piss off the powers that be.
We have a wonderful constitution. This wonderful constitution is negated by rather scared individuals in government where the last thing they want is free speech.
But hey. We voted for them. So what the hell. It is our fault. One day the uneducated masses will realise this. I am, however, not holding my breath.
And therein rests my political post for the month.
2 Comments:
you voted for them? ;)
Open any paper, whether it be on-line or in print and there's a story about corruption and/or mismanagement. Makes me wonder how much does not make it into the news
And don't even get me started on the suppression of HIV/AIDS stats!! If ever you want a mission it is to find decent HIV stats on a government website. Near impossible!
The masses have realised and they have decided to rather not vote at all, which is very worrying. More voter education would make people realise that a spoiled vote even counts. But then voter education costs time, money, and the worry that the leading party might be able to be voted out of power...
Also, interesting blog to read now, just as Zuma starts sueing the press for millions. Damn fcking disgusting.
Sorry, touchy subject, I guess.
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