Journalists had their first run-in with the ruling party on Sunday when they were left fuming in the Durban City Hall after the accreditation process of the ANC national general council (NGC) was severely delayed.
Faulty machinery, bad planning and a security breach contributed to reporters struggling to secure their accreditation for admittance to the crucial NGC by late Sunday night.
- ANC national general council: A special report
The NGC kicks off on Monday morning but by late on Sunday night hundreds of reporters were still waiting for their accreditation tags for the conference at the Durban Exhibition Centre.
Accreditation for the media had been supposed to start on Saturday, but it was then found that several accreditation forms had been submitted by people who were not journalists.
The ruling party’s relations with the media are already strained due to a controversial plan by the ANC to set up a media tribunal in an attempt to ‘regulate” the print media, which is on the conference’s agenda. The government also last week admitted it was worried about foreign intelligence operatives infiltrating the country and the ruling party used this as a reason to promote the Protection of Information Bill, currently before Parliament.
ANC officials involved in the accreditation process said people who were not journalists had tried to circumvent security checks by supplying details of other journalists and had attached their own picture to accreditation forms. Others claimed to be working for non-existent media houses or claimed to be employed by known media outlets.
‘You would be told of a TV station that you’ve never heard of before,” a Luthuli House staffer told the Mail & Guardian.
To avoid a scramble at the NGC, the ANC asked media houses to accredit their journalists weeks before the event, but the security measures were insufficient to ensure that only recognised journalists were allowed to cover the conference.
On Saturday journalists were contacted by ANC staffers to confirm their identity numbers because of the security breach.
An organiser told the M&G that “unscrupulous elements” had tried to gain entry to the conference.
On Sunday night. ANC heavyweights such as national organiser and deputy minister of police Fikile Mbalula and deputy secretary general Thandi Modise came to the rescue of hapless officials who were under severe pressure to register journalists.
A sole printer used to print the 400 accreditation tags broke and the computer system repeatedly crashed.
ANC officials would not comment and the ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu was away due to a bereavement.
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