We at the Mail & Guardian are developing an unhealthy relationship with Court 6 E of the Johannesburg High Court. The court orderlies know us well. Too well.
Last Saturday, we were interdicted for the third time in a year and a half.It is an irony that the interdict, brought by the South African Broadcasting Corporation to make us take down a copy of the commission report into blacklisting off our website, came just four days before press freedom day. And it is a double irony that we were hauled into court by another media organisation intent on staunching the free flow of information.
October 19 recalls the dark days. In 1977 The World and Weekend World were banned by a state running scared of the value of independent thought and free media.
Are we back there? Hardly. But freedom not zealously protected can quickly be lost as our colleagues in Zimbabwe know only too well. It took less than two years for press freedom to die in our northern neighbour.
Which is why the M&G will go to Court 6 E as often as it takes to protect our rights under Section 16 of the Constitution.
It’s worth noting that the interdicts against us were not brought by the state but by an oil company caught defrauding the state (abetted by the ruling party), by a corporate titan accused of defrauding the Post Office and, finally, by the national broadcaster, which did not want the actions of an apparatchik exposed.
There is an kneejerk trend toward pre-publication censorship and it should be stomped on. In this, the High Court judges Suretta Snyders (in the MTN case) and Zukiswa Tshiqi (in the SABC case) have led the way.
Both have highlighted the importance of the public interest and media rights. This should stop the gaggers in our midst.
But it is not enough. The instinct to gag runs rampant within the state too.
The Flim and Publications Bill, now on ice pending further negotiation, would have introduced a draconian form of pre-publication censorship. If passed, it would have made it impossible to publish an investigative newspaper like this one. Every edition would have needed to be passed by a committee of censors for it did not only deal with child pornography (as claimed), but could have censored for any sexual content as well as the broadly framed incitement to war and violence. That would, for example, outlaw any report referring to ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s anthem Mshiniwami or even to the coverage of the war in Iraq.
That the pernicious bull even got as far as Parliament should make all democrats shudder. They should read the SABC report (on this website at www.mg.co.za/sabcreport) and shudder more.
The broadcaster, still the most important source of information to South Africans, is in a vice-grip of political correctness and nannie prancing around as journalists. It is a scary document revealing that under the managing director of news and current affairs, Snuki Zikalala, the SABC will decide what you may and may not hear or see. There will be no sanction though the commissioners who drew up the report recommend several. It is time for a renewed campaign for open broadcasting. And once the Film and Publications Bill makes it back onto the parliamentary schedule democrats of all stripes should make sure they make their voices heard. Media freedom is your freedom.
Too much tinkering
As South Africans we are all eyes glued on the succession battle in the ANC. It’s natural. There is every chance that while the ANC will not be in power until Jesus comes back (as presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma so delicately put it), it will take the ballot box for at least two more elections.
It is a particularly dramatic battle with none of the neat change of guard that marked the transfer of power from former president Nelson Mandela to incumbent Thabo Mbeki.
But as we get consumed by the body politic, it’s also important not to take our eye off the ball completely. And we risk doing so by focusing only on party politics. That’s why the M&G this week publishes its inaugural DG report card.
The directors-general are important for “delivery”, that catch-all phrase we use to describe whether the state is working or not. Our team has gone from department to department assessing the effectiveness of the men and women in charge of them. The prognosis? Well, we don’t hang onto DGs for long enough so they are nearly all new and learning the ropes.
It takes executives two or three years to get comfortable in their jobs and five years to be proficient. None of our mandarins stay around long enough to do so. The other big problem is that 12 years after freedom came, we are still in the phase of deciding the shape and strategy of policies. We should be deep in the implementation phase. If not, delivery is not happening. The report shows there is still too much tinkering on the edges and not keeping in mind the big picture. Instead of dealing with schools that do not have the basics, for example, we are still auditing needs. Instead of dealing with the blockages in the criminal justice system, we are commissioning strategy design and research.
Which is why we have awarded our results not on the best-looking policies but on actual execution.