About 45% of South Africa’s population, most of them living in rural areas, doesn’t get enough coverage of events impacting on their lives, the African National Congress said on Tuesday.
These people rely on the SA Broadcasting Corporation, and political rallies for information, ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama told reporters at the launch of his party’s discussion document.
”These people are not interacting with government, and cannot express their views,” Ngonyama said. ”We need to come up with something so that we are able to reach these rural areas.”
Ngonyama, the man in charge of the media division of the ruling ANC, said these observations were contained in the ANC’s discussion document, Umrabulo. Contents of the document would be discussed at all ANC branches next month.
The document, released in Johannesburg ahead of the ANC’s 51st national conference in Stellenbosch in December, state that these rural residents could easily be manipulated.
The document read in part: ”This uneven information flow leads to a situation where those who reside in rural areas become victims or easy prey to various forms of information manipulation.
”As a movement, we need extraordinary strategy to improve methods and mechanisms of enhancing vibrant communication system in the rural areas.”
The paper said party members needed to discuss how their organisation could reach this group ? 75% of them ANC supporters.
Ngonyama said the ANC needed to engage the media to ensure it promote and became sensitive to the government’s achievements.
Commenting on the relationship between the media, the government and the ANC, the document said the uneasy relationship between these organisation was founded on political realities of the past.
”So long as transformation is off-limits as subject of political debate, it would be difficult to imagine any permanent qualitative change for the better in the relationship.”
The media resisted discussion on transformation as a way to protect its partisan role and hide its opposition to the far-reaching changes proposed by the movement, it said. – Sapa