Info Scandal II
Spot the difference:
It’s a peaceful and sunny Sunday morning, and the Sunday Times is once again the bringer of what a friend calls “an explosive cover story”. Written by Buddy Naidu and Simpiwe Piliso, here’s the headline: Mbeki men in R7bn bid to own Sunday Times.
I was but a child when the Rand Daily Mail broke the news in November 1978 that The Citizen, founded two years earlier by publisher Louis Luyt, cabinet minister Connie Mulder and secretary of information Eschel Rhoodie, had been established and secretly funded by the National Party government under state president B.J. Vorster. Previously, Luyt had tried to acquire shares in South African Amalgamated Newspapers. [Update: I should point out that SAAN was the publisher of the famous Rand Daily Mail, which was at the time highly critical of the apartheid regime.]
Now, it appears Ronnie Mamoepa, the spokesperson in the department of foreign affairs — a similar role to that played by Rhoodie in the 1970s — with Titus Mafolo, a political adviser to Thabo Mbeki, and Billy Modise, former chief of state protocol, who together with delightfully-named businessman Groovin Nchabeleng own a company named Koni Media Holdings, are attempting to take over Johnnic Communications. Johncom is the publisher of several major media titles that have been vocal critics of the government and have in turn been singled out for tongue-lashings by Mbeki, assorted state officials and the public broadcaster. They include the Sunday Times, the Sowetan, and half of the Financial Mail and Business Day. Mamoepa and company have applied for funding from among others the state-owned Public Investment Corporation.
Thabo Mbeki on Friday laid into the media, saying that the government was not attempting to stifle press freedom.
“A few of these have even attempted to make comparisons with the repugnant apartheid government, which in 1977 banned a number of publications, including the World and the Weekend World,” Mbeki reportedly said.
How hollow his denial rings today. What the repugnant apartheid government also did in 1977 was publish The Citizen, denying all the while that it was funded by government money, that it exercised editorial control, or that it was engaged in a National Party propaganda and misinformation campaign. The affair led to the resignation of the state president, B.J. Vorster.
One ANC member of parliament has already spoken out against the deal. Kader Asmal is quoted as saying it is “astonishing that civil servants are able to develop time and energy for what is really a takeover bid”. He argues that at issue is the danger of control of newspapers by politically active people. Perhaps he should consider tabling a bill in parliament preventing civil servants or “politically active people” from owning interests in media companies. That goes for the stake Tokyo “Berlusconi” Sexwale’s company, Mvelaphanda, is acquiring in Johncom too.
I’ve written before about the worrying similarities between the socio-economic policies of this government and the apartheid regime — both practicing a form of national socialism or state corporatism. In this essentially political affair, the parallels with the first Info Scandal are even more uncanny. They are frightening. Who, for example, will be playing the role of P.W. Botha, who stepped into the power vacuum left after Vorster’s resignation?
Update: Anton Harber points out one difference.
The government-related news of the past few months has made me seriously evaluate the possibility of selling up and moving to that little grey rainy island up north.
Am I being overly pessimistic?
I’ve never before felt it was this bad.
I’m not prepared to publicly advocate anything either way.
I will, however, make a few points. As a matter of principle, I believe in the right to free immigration. People should be free to make their own, subjective value decisions about remaining in one country as compared with moving to another, just as they make choices about which town best fits their lifestyle, which employer offers the best job, and which products best satisfy their needs and wants. On that basis, I cannot objectively discourage anyone from considering such a move.
The other argument, which may weight pretty heavily in your case, is that you only have a limited time horizon in which to make such a decision. It depends on your age, your profession and industry, the portability of your experience, and so forth, but for many people, it will be much harder to start a new career, build new networks, and gain new reputations aged 45 or 55, than it would be at age 35 or 25. Therefore, even if you think there’s a very small likelihood of political developments in South Africa that would have a significant adverse impact on your quality of life, you may feel it’s worth hedging anyway. It’s easier to change your mind and move back in ten years should your fears not be realised, than to change your mind and move out if they are.
I remain optimistic about South Africa. I think the chance that the people of South Africa will stand for the rise of a liberator-turned-oppressor is very small. We have too much to lose. I sure hope we know the meaning of our hard-won freedoms. That those who fought and died for our liberty didn’t do so just so we can be told to toe the line by a demographically representative oppressor.
In that sense, I think you’re being overly pessimistic. But optimism or pessimism isn’t the only variable in this equation. Even if you’re optimistic, I don’t think it’s unwise to seriously evaluate your options.
Two words: Animal Farm
It’s no longer Johnnic - it’s Avusa.
Well-spotted, but wrong, I’m afraid. I did check.
The intended name-change was approved by shareholders on 31 October 2007, but it has not yet been completed at the Registrar of Companies. The notice period for terminating the use of the Johnnic/Johncom trade names expires on 30 November 2007.
Besides, since Johncom’s corporate website, not to mention its own flagship newspaper, uses the name “Johncom”, who am I to argue?
We’ve just had to change all mention of “Johncom” to “Avusa” on our mag - at least as many as we could get to on deadline day. Internally, it’s official.
Johncom should write less about itself, then ;-)
Why would the president’s sidekicks lay out so much money if it will benefit him for such a short time? Maiximum two years IF he retains his leadership of the party in December, because I seriously doubt that he will ever muster enough support to change the constitution in order to provide for a third term for himself in Tuynhuys. The only possible reasons can be (1)that they really are doing it for investment purposes and the benefit to The Leader is a bonus and/or (2) the whole picture has not yet fully emerged and Mbeki and co believe that they can get somebody into The Office that Mbeki can control to such an extend that he will be ruling from the wings. The plot thickens.
Owning a major newspaper critical of government and the ruling party benefits not just the current president, but the party itself any future presidents. In general, it benefits the government if government officials own a big whack of the domestic media. That is probably why Tokyo Sexwale is also in the bidding.
Besides, if they were doing it for investment purposes, they’re insane, at the price.
Either way, it’s a conflict of interest for politicians or civil servants to have their own business interests on the side. Doubly so if they’re media interests.