Since allegations of corruption against Deputy President Jacob Zuma broke, the news media has never looked so interesting. Those who follow the daily soaps are missing out on the real South African action—this is local content 100 percent.
A climactic moment came the day National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and Justice Minister Penuell Maduna called a press conference to declare that Zuma would not be prosecuted. The two announced that there was prima facie proof of corruption, which they could not take the risk of placing before a judge. Maduna weighed in with a classic sound byte, words which Zuma and others have taken the greatest exception to: ‘It is sad that there was evidence of corruption by the Deputy President.”
That press conference had all the necessary elements. As one TV reporter observed, Maduna and Ngcuka were clad in matching shiny black leather jackets. The same colours of the Scorpions’ vehicles, which often arrive ‘Hollywood style’ to arrest suspects or raid premises? The same ‘Hollywood style’ that Ngcuka said he approved of at the press conference, and would continue to use because it was effective? This despite all stuff ‘Hollywood style’ being lambasted by senior ANC and government officials, including Secretary General Kgalema Monthlate and Minister in the Presidency Dr. Essop Pahad?
It is also interesting to note that in true soap opera style (where a story has many overlapping narratives, where friend can fight friend, or ANC comrade fight ANC comrade) a war over how the story has been covered has broken out between the Sunday Times and City Press. In this battle of the Sunday papers, the Sunday Times has taken the lead with several scoops, including the leaked 35 questions sent to Zuma by the Scorpions and the Cyril Ramaphosa mediation that never was.
Ramaphosa’s attempted mediation was in itself another twist in the plot, introducing what Sunday Times editor Mathatha Tsedu, in an analysis piece, said was linked to the presidential succession struggle. Tsedu implied that by ‘rescuing’ Zuma, Ramaphosa would improve his chances of nailing the presidential prize. Zuma had himself protested at the mediation offer, and in one more memorable sound byte asked: ‘How can an investigation be mediated?” Brilliant?
City Press, not to be outdone, has broken its own dimensions of the soapie. A week after the Sunday Times leaked the 35 questions, City Press lead with a story claiming that Ngcuka had been asked to return a sleek BMW, which he had not been authorised to buy. Also, after the charges against Zuma were ‘somewhat’ dropped by Ngcuka, City Press not only lead with the headline ‘Zuma Cleared’, but also ran a dramatic front page comment decrying ‘trial by media’.
Of course, hours after deciding not to prosecute Zuma, Ngcuka charged Schabir Shaik (Zuma’s personal adviser) with multiple criminal offences in a charge sheet that deeply implicated Zuma. Then Shaik, a character with several one-liners of his own, responded in a TV interview that the author of the charge sheet should win a Pulitzer prize for fiction. Days later Zuma took the Scorpions to court to ask them to release the original of the encrypted fax in French, which implicated him in soliciting for a bribe. The hunted becomes the hunter?
The following Sunday City Press had yet more dramatic headlines about allegations of Ngcuka having been an apartheid spy. Yes, your guess is right—a front-page comment justifying its publication of the allegations as necessary to the public interest.
Dr. Tawana Kupe is head of media studies at Wits University’s School of Literature and Language Studies. .