mkabayi

how ironic, that in your June 13 editorial: "Apologise to Madiba", the editor of this venerable "struggle newspaper", has chosen to take a completely partisan stance in our political discourse. It's one thing to publish an editoral view chastising Azapo youth on it public statements. but to do so in a manner that elevates one ideological persuasion to heroic, almoast saintly heights at the expense of others, is disturbing particularly when you choose to block readers' comments on the article. this would have given balance and a more 'problemmatised', objective appreciation of our political history.

your very premise that the transition, which madiba inspired, has been hailed as a miracle in respect of the black african majority who were trapped in poverty and servitude, i say this very premise is, as you are well aware, highly contentious. by who is this so-called transition being hailed as a miracle? is it the very same poor black african majority who by-and-large still live in absolute poverty and deprivation? is it the newly 'empowered black political elite in the tripartite alliance, the black petty bourgouise who have hardly created any new wealth themselves because they are simply inadequately prepared for this except to be totally dependent on the state, for salaries and tenders? is the white former ruling class who still by far control the economy and whose interests were vitaly affirmed and protected in the 1996 anc-np constitution? is it the western world, who by virtue of the post-apartheid govt's neo-liberal economic stance and determination to protect western capitalist interests can still exercise enormous influence in the affairs of the state? the very same western powers new that the largely illiterate, semi-literate, unsophisticated african majority would be duped by the so-called transition being called a 'miracle' mistaking it for something admirable when in fact they are being lulled into complacency in the face of injustice being done to them. their not pressing for retribution against the apartheid state and equitable redistribution of land and wealth stolen by the oppressor is being potrayed as virtueous when no one dared to suggest that the Jews should not pursue justice against Nazi murderers and extract maximum compensation against the German nation state!

it is not exercising editorial balance and fairness to harp on madiba's sacrifices before and after his 27 year imprisonment. there are a lot of people from various liberation movements who suffered even more. the pac's jeff masemola, spent more time in prison than madiba, for example. steve biko paid the highest price for freedom in 1977, and there are many more others. what the sowetan editor is guilty of, which hopefully in time would be corrected is censorship of opposing versions of the history of our struggle and priviledging one 'orthodox' view on history. and this is completely different from deriding Azapo youth for being disrespectfull and insensitive to the elderly madiba - who by our african culture deserves our respect as an elder.

i suggest that the essence of our analysis here should be based on what both the congress alliance leadership of mandela, tambo, sisulu, slovo and govan mbeki predicted would be the outcome of their struggle and what was predicted by the dessenting voices of the africanists (an influential pressure-group within the pre-1959 anc who later broke away to form the pac) who in turn heavily influenced the black consciousness philosophy of Azapo. in his speech on the dock during the treason trial, mandela said he charished an ideal of a free democractic SA, in which neither the 'black or white would domininate the other'. the africanists contended that this was impossible. one of the nations has to dominate, the africans or the europeans, as is the case in all other african countries and indeed in europe itself. the africanists predicted that should those who supported the 'freedom charter' eventually become victorious, their version of freedom would only benefit a small black african elite not the majority of the people. we can judge by simple observation as to whose prediction was the correct one. we should then ask whether the adherents of these formations genuinely believed in their cause, if they at all times acted with the best interests of the people they claimed to lead or they simply "played politics" and had allowed personal ambitions and short-term partisan gains to cloud their judgement.



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Pointman

An unshackled me is one of the pillars of democracy. I agree that they mostly do their job including right here in South Africa. Corrupt people like Cele and Selebi are out of public service because of the free media. The oilgate money would never have been refunded to the taxpayer if the media had not exposed the scandal and then held the dishonest officials to account.

However the other side of the coin is that the media is sometimes itself corrupt. Corrupt journalists have from time to time written articles praising government officials for money. A New York times journalist wrote articles justifying invasion of Iraq and was paid by the CIA. In the run up to the 1929 crash and thereafter, journalists wrote articles for cash talking up the price of shares. The media is not perfect but does a good job.
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