South Africa was still faced with the problem of an unpatriotic press whose focus on the country’s crime problem was deterring investors, according to former president Nelson Mandela.
Speaking on SAFM’s ‘Tim Modise Show’, he said there was much to be proud of in the new South Africa.
Before the 1994 democratic elections, white South African would never go abroad and announce their nationality.
”Since 1994, the doors of the world are open to South Africa, but we still have a problem, we don’t have a patriotic press.”
Mandela recalled how when he was in Switzerland for the Olympic Bid, a prime minister informed him of a bank robbery in which 14-million Swiss Francs had been stolen.
”And I said: Is that in the [news]paper? He dropped his voice and said ‘No, we don’t do that, because if we do that, that will affect investments.”
Mandela said he had also mentioned another incident in which he mentioned to another prime minister that South Africa still had a high crime problem.
”He [the prime minister] said: ‘No, your crime is no worse than ours. The only difference is that our press is aware if they make an issue of this, it will affect investment, so they don’t.”
Mandela told listeners: ”Some of those papers are conservative, or controlled by one ethnic group, and they don’t want to praise South Africa.”
However, he singled out the ‘Sowetan’ newspaper for praise, saying it was doing ”a remarkable job”.
”I support the ‘Sowetan’ … very fully, without reservations. It has become the mouthpiece of the previous voiceless people in the country, but you can’t say that of all the press.”
Mandela emphasised that he welcomed an independent and courageous press, ”that can criticise anyone of us, even if he is president”.
”They criticised me a lot and I appreciated that, because I used the media even the conservative ones as a mirror from which I can see the image I’m projecting,” he said. – Sapa