Has the world gone completely mad? We have the ANC Youth League celebrating the “agricultural prowess” of Gideon Gono, Malema expelling a BBC journalist from a press conference, people treating the AWB as if they’re a bunch of sane people who just like dressing up in khaki and everyone’s looking to Jacob Zuma for salvation.
Difficult to dream this up. All the while we should be worrying about the World Bank loan to Eskom, probing Malema’s business dealings and concentrating on the Fifa Soccer World Cup.
Have we lost the plot?
Seriously, has everyone forgotten what the AWB is and who Eugene Terre’Blanche really was? The AWB wears a crippled swastika. Their members beat up black people because they think they’re not human. They think the English are just to be tolerated, but it’s a pity Hitler didn’t win and enslave the whole lot. And don’t get them started on the Jews. They stand against everything this country stands for. They even ignore the very symbol of it. And they’re being treated as if they’re just another political party.
When their secretary-general Andries Visagie walked out, all white rage and pious anger, from etv on Wednesday night, it was a rejection of the rules of the game, of the country and the playing field to which the rest of us have agreed.
And for that reason, we need to call them what they are - a group of people whose beliefs are beyond the pale. And when Cosatu and the alliance claim the media are celebrating racists, they might have a valid point. There’s been tons of coverage of the AWB, treating them as just another group. And they’re anything but. And while we all agree that we should strive to represent all points of view, and that extremists should be kept within the national conversation rather than out of it, their actual views should still be represented far clearer than they have been. We haven’t seen enough questions about whether they believe that all men are equal.
And if you need more convincing, consider this: Terre’Blanche’s funeral is to be held in a church that doesn’t allow black people inside, but has made a special dispensation for black journalists. (Are they going to be considered honorary whites, similar to Japanese people during apartheid? - Ed) Seriously, think how cuckoo that is.
And while that freak show is ongoing, the other freak show has just stumbled into bigger pastures. Malema is now in real danger of being just a clown, a buffoon, rather than any kind of serious player. Thursday’s press conference made him come across as a small child, anxious for attention. We know it might sound far-fetched, but it is becoming clear that his trip to Zimbabwe looks too much part of Mugabe's Machiavellian plot. Malema's visit came just as Zuma had taken a harder line on Mugabe. Mugabe's response: Invite Malema, treat him like a rock star, a visiting head of state, fill his head with nonsense and send him back. Essentially, Mugabe gave the middle-finger to Zuma. And it’s working wonderfully, for him. Malema used to say he was anti-Mugabe, but pro-Zanu PF. Well, well, well, now he’s pro-Mugabe.
We’ve been saying for ages that Zuma and Mantashe need to reel Malema in. Now it’s really beginning to look as if Zuma is too scared to decide anything. So Malema is running out of control. If Zuma is keen to stop any singing of the “Kill the Boer” song, Malema’s stuck his tongue out as far as he dare, very much like any stupid teenager would. Okay, we understand that Zuma’s probably waiting for the next NEC meeting to use as an opportunity to censure Malema, without the blood and guts of being blamed for it. But by then it may be too late.
Kicking a journalist out of a press conference just because he spoke the truth to you is crossing yet another line. It says: “I don’t care about you, the organisation or the ideal you represent.” And it’s not as if the BBC has any pull. Already the National Press Club is gearing up to get more involved in this. What started as a small complaint by a small section of the country’s journalists (conflict alert – this writer is one of them) is now threatening to snowball into an international problem.
I understand this has been a crazy week in SA. Some have been talking up a race war and most are deeply worried. Malema is still dominating the news agenda, with no let-up in sight. This madness is going to continue until he’s deposed. It’s as simple as that.
You know, I never thought I’d say this, but here it is:
I can’t wait for Fifa to take over.
By Stephen Grootes
(Grootes is an Eyewitness News reporter)
Two months is an awfully short time in the construction business.
The only reasons the Terreblanche saga makes World news is fears for the safety of citizens during the World Cup,the potential for a Race war and an expose of the Black Supremacist Malema.Even Al Quaeda have jumped on the bandwagon with this statement on their site:
'How amazing could the match United States vs Britain be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium packed with spectators.
'When the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands,the whole Stadium is turned upside down and the numbers of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds. Allah willing.
FIFA has brought you a lot more than you expect and you still have to pay through taxation for the ANC folly.
I saw/heard a very interesting talk on TED by Sam Harris that science can perhaps answer our moral questions. Maybe Malema what motivates Malema is that he is part of some science experiment.
The AWB HAS bee elevated to representing the interests of White people, the death of ET has been elevated to representing the war that the Black masses are waging against White people and the journalist at Luthuli House has come to represent how Malema is the next Hilter or worse.
It is also particularly interesting Stephen that you are the first journalist to try and put things in the proper perspective!
Thanks for that. I do however venture that the media has given Juju too much publicity. By my estimation, Julius Malema has said nothing newsworthy in the last 4 weeks and yet he has never been in our faces more than the last 4 weeks. Curious that.
Malema is fueled by the media - if nobody shows up to his "press conferences" nobody will even know about him.
Why is this happening?
I grew up on a farm. I used to ride my bike everywhere. When I now visit on the farm I cannot go out of eyesight of the farmhouse. It is just too DANGEROUS.
If you journalists had just one molecule of ethics and any shred of backbone to speak of , I dare say you should all have stood up and left .
By staying behind , you simply bind journalism to the few remaining worthy , upstanding causes still in existence in this new and improved SA , like horse racing , scrap metal dealers , 2nd hand car salesmen , estate agents and ANC politicians .
Eish Stephen .
Just ignore the dancing donut and like all donuts left on a shelf , they become stale and are consigned to the dirtbin .
Something significant had just gone down, and we had the opportunity to see what would happen next and question Malema about why he had kicked Fisher out. And something much more significant was about to happen; Malema was about to defy the instructions of the ANC by talking about the Terre'Blanche case, which we knew full fell could have far-reaching consequences.
Walk out of that? Hell, if they tried to throw me out I'd have lashed myself to the chair. Wild horses couldn't have dragged me out of there.
While in the field a journalist has two priorities: get at the news, then get it back to our readers. Nothing else matters. Once the story is filed and you're back in the office and off the clock, as it were, then it is appropriate to consider the bigger picture, and file a complaint or write a sternly-worded letter or whatever. But in the moment we first and always gather the news.
I was a little preoccupied to notice the guilty parties at the time, but keep in mind that Malema's pressers are often also attended by a private entourage, not just journalists. I'm hoping those hangers-on were the twitterers, but I can't confirm that one way or the other.
Does anyone understand the logic behind Malema's comments or the point that he was trying to make?
I don't, but would like to - please help!
"This is the building of a revolutionary organisation, not a newsroom - you cannot behave like that here", to paraphrase what Malema said.
Is he suggesting that when invited to a press conference at Luthuli house, special rules of protocol and decorum apply, something like applies to the queen and Buckingham Palace in the UK?
If he wants a kid gloves approach, then he had better only invite SABC (HMV) "journalists"
Is JuJu OK fielding difficult questions and interjections from journalists at Hotels. rallies etc, but not at Luthuli house?
What does the venue have to do with it?
He has in the past made subtle threats with refernces to the IFP marchers that were murdered outside the Old Shell house (and for which no one was ever brought to justice - I wonder if that would have been the case if the situation was the other way round - ANC members inside had been killed by an IFP mob outside?).
The possibility seems to exist that some of those that pulled the triggeres and were responsible presently sit in Parliament.
All Malema had to say to Jonah Fisher is "sure I live in Sandton - that's just my point. I have not gone out of the country to shout the odds at a distance the way the MDC has."
Malema fell for the old prosecuting attorneys trick - get the witness angry, and his true feelings will come out.
I usupect that malema's comments and outburst give a chilling glimpse into the workings of his mind.
He seems to be modelling himself on Joseph Stalin.
Calling Fisher "an agent" - what does he mean - Spy? Agent provocateur?
The Prep school references to what is under the jurno's trousers just makes him look childish.