Dear Auntie Robert,
I am sure you don’t want to add yet more fuel to the veritable furnace of opinion about Mr Jacob Zuma’s campaign to be the next president of South Africa. In the absence of — in my opinion anyway — any other credible presidential candidates among the ANC elite, I have to wonder whether Mr Zuma wouldn’t ultimately be the best bet for us all.
— Always in Hope
Uitenhage
Dear Always in Hope,
I must admit to occasional similar wonderings. After all, Jacob Zuma is a Zulu and only the briefest reference to history shows that the Zulus have produced some of our finest leaders: Tshaka, Dingaan, Cetshwayo, Luthuli. Today the mighty Zulu tree continues to yield remarkable individuals. Think of our beloved Archbishop Tutu. Chief Buthelezi might be despised by his opposition but no one can deny his charisma, purpose and qualities of leadership.
It will be interesting to see what happens. Some say that the election of Mr Zuma to the presidency would be followed by an almost instant switching off of the power supply to the rainbow, a sudden darkening and plummeting into Mugabe-style slash-and-burn government. Others disagree and say that Mr Zuma’s style is refreshing in that it embodies none of the befuddling flim-flam-flooey of the Mbeki clique. If Zuma becomes president, you’ll know exactly where you stand on Jacob’s ladder.
Dear Auntie Robert,
I have a feeling that the time-honoured handmaiden of power-brokers has been called out of semi-retirement. I am talking about censorship, which is slowly being redeployed in official circles. Other censorship is evident in actions on Parliament, where the Speaker and the ANC majority effectively ban discussion on current issues they don’t want out in the open, like the recent occasion where debate on Alec Erwin’s double-talk over the famous Koeberg bolt was blocked.
Then there’s the upcoming version of the Censorship Act, which is intended to subject the media to the control of politicians. Newspapers will have to submit what they want to print for approval by government-appointed officials.
Are we back to the bad old days?
Neddie
Sea Point
Dear Neddie,
You are quite right in saying that censorship hasn’t disappeared. It never does. It just goes into hibernation during the short, uncomfortable seasons of true freedom of speech. The American commentator Nat Hentoff went further. He said that he had become convinced that censorship is one of the prime instincts of mankind, like self-preservation, procreation and so on. In prehistoric times, they used to go around scratching out each other’s cave-wall paintings, on the grounds that they were lewd and bad for the kids. Since then, censorship has grown into one of the most popular of pastimes for insecure minds. Censors go for things they don’t understand or which make them feel uneasy. Most of all, it’s ideas they like to kill. Those with imagination are always despised by those devoid of it. And censorship is almost invariably carried out as part of some higher purpose: the protection of the nation’s morals or its safety, and so on.
For these and other reasons, the current power-mongers want to introduce media control. It’s not enough having organisations like the SABC toeing the party line. All newspapers must now be watched carefully and “encouraged” to print stories of how well everything is being managed or delivered. It’s going to be fun seeing how they supervise it practically. Will all future newsrooms have solemn little government censors sitting in them, deciding what may be printed and what not?
Bernard Shaw once said that assassination is the extreme form of censorship. If you fear them — kill ’em off. Look at the recent case of the Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. A fierce critic of Putin’s Chechnya slaughterings, she was taken out.
If you want a superbly reported and considered overview of how censorship of one kind or another has always been at work in South Africa, ask your library to find you a copy of an extraordinarily well-researched and argued book, called A Culture of Censorship, by Christopher Merrett. It’s both fascinating and a bit depressing to see the range of excuses and justifications given for censorship. You’ll be amazed at some similarities between then and now.
Dear Auntie Robert,
I see with a sense of despair that our minister of health is considering bringing another working vegetable into the official health department front line currently fighting HIV/Aids. The seeds of the water pumpkin have been recommended to the minister by a fine grey-bearded gent who says the use of these seeds as a specific against HIV/Aids came to him in a dream.
Are we living in cloud cuckoo land or what?
Kilroy Is Still Here
Dear Kilroy is Still Here,
If it’s water pumpkin seeds, it must have been some sort of wet dream. What I can’t understand is why you feel a sense of despair. It’s wonderful to learn that water pumpkin seeds are about to take their rightful place in contemporary medical pharmacology, along with all those tomatoes and things.
Strange you mention the cuckoo. We all know how these birds don’t know how, or are too lackadaisical, to make their own nests, so they evict other birds or sneak their eggs in among other clutches. Poor Manto’s HIV/Aids nest has been taken over by several cuckoos, led by our honourable deputy president.