Office of the President
Nkandla, July 29 2009
1st directive of the President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
In this great and glorious moment following my inauguration, I hereby make the following vital announcements of state.
For his unwavering support in the course of my ill-fated persecution by the denizens of the mass media, I am very pleased to announce the appointment of veteran journalist Jon Qwelane as the head of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).
Since 2006, Qwelane has been an invaluable pillar of support informing me of illicit off-the-record briefings. He advised me to sue six newspapers, a radio station and that pesky cartoonist Zapiro in 2006, a key factor in ensuring that the denizens were tamed as I ramped up my revolutionary campaign for this great and glorious office.
In addition, I am happy to announce the appointment of Ms Ranjeni Munusamy as my official spokeswoman. Ms Munusamy sacrificed her job in the early days of my campaign.
Joining her will be the former filmmaker Liesl Gottert. Her film about my tribulations played no small part in securing the support of the grassroots.
I hereby also announce the managing director of news and current affairs at the SABC, Karen Bliksem, formerly a columnist at The Sunday Independent, which I am still suing.
While my defamation claims course their way through the courts, I also will submit a Presidential Bill to Parliament in which I propose the outlawing of satire and cartooning in the Republic.
The Bill also makes provision for a press registration council that will vet all political commentary. While I support media freedom, this right must be balanced by my right to protect my reputation. I am the Republic. The Republic is me. Mshiniwami!!!
Signed: JZ
July 2006
This week, African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma announced his intention to sue for defamation The Citizen, Rapport, The Star, Sunday Sun, Sunday Times and The Sunday Independent.
The suit is being brought against the newspapers largely for commentary critical of his evidence in the course of the rape trial brought against him by a 32-year-old family friend. Zuma was acquitted.
He is also suing the cartoonist Zapiro, as well as The Rude Awakening programme on 94.7 Highveld Stereo. He is being assisted in his suit by Gottert and advised by Qwelane.
Gottert’s film, The Zuma Media Trial, is being shown across the country as Zuma’s campaign for the presidency takes off. Munusamy is a strategist in this grassroots campaign.
The ANC elects a new president in December 2007. Laugh now. You may not always be allowed to.
Beyond the boardroom
The suspension of Connie Molusi as the chief executive of the media group Johncom this week is being treated as a standard boardroom drama, pitting the CE against the board chairman Mashudu Ramano.
The word is that Ramano is in alliance with Caxton’s majority shareholder, Terry Moolman, the enigmatic media baron who reportedly wants to step into Molusi’s shoes.
Interesting stuff.
But the implications are far deeper than if this had been a baked beans company or even a mining group. Johncom is the owner of some of South Africa’s finest media assets: among them the flagship Sunday Times; Business Day and Financial Mail (of which the company owns 50%); and the Sowetan and Sunday World. A full merger with Caxton, of which Johncom already has a 38% stake, would be parlous for media diversity. The era since 1994 has seen greater consolidation of media assets (primarily newspapers) instead of the realisation of greater competition and therefore diversity. The relatively high costs of newspaper assets make economies of scale a real imperative but these must be balanced against the democratic imperative of media diversity.
Until now, the only real diversity has been generated by the SABC’s sale of six radio stations and the stellar work in community media. At the macro-level, concentration has been the name of the game in the print industry.
The attempted ouster of Molusi is also reportedly part of a plan to smooth the purchase of a stake in Johncom by leading businessmen such as Patrice Motsepe, Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa. They would give Johncom the black ownership the group is desperately in need of, but at what cost?
When the Randlords owned newspapers in South Africa, their media assets became the handmaidens of big capital, with notable exceptions of course. A purchase by black money would be exactly the same thing, though it is fair to note that Ramaphosa directed Johncom with a light touch.
It is never a good idea for those who run the economy to run the media that covers them. It is one reason we have never had a truly muscular financial press in South Africa. With two of the country’s business newspapers in its fold, will the mould be broken? Hardly.
It is also well worth looking at how Russian oligarch ownership of newspapers has neutralised and cauterised the potential of free media. It is not a pattern we want to repeat. Those who pay the piper always end up wanting to call the tune.