Press clubs are for public engagement not political intolerance
Following the fracas after Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson refused to enter the room or speak at a Cape Town Press Club breakfast until an opposition MP had removed himself, there is suddenly talk of the press club being some kind of front "infiltrated" by opposition politicians.
ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu, the office of the ANC chief whip, and several newspaper editorials, have questioned whether politicians should be members of the club. The press club has agreed to raise the issue in committee on Monday and to also place it on the agenda at the club's next AGM. I intend to argue at these meetings that the club should not change its membership policy.
There may well still be a good argument or reason to exclude politicians but I have not yet heard it. The opinions advanced to date by the ANC chief whip and ANC national spokesperson are certainly not grounds for changing the policy. But I understand why they have this point of view, given that it is uninformed and based on near total ignorance of how the Cape Town Press Club works.
Firstly, a press club does not only have journalists as members. This is true of press clubs all over the world including the oldest and most esteemed. As a former member of the National Press Club in Washington DC, Hugh Roberton, wrote to the Cape Times in the club's defence, all sorts of people including judges, diplomats and politicians are members of press clubs everywhere.
"Press Club meetings are all about cut and thrust, questions and answers, and present both a challenge and an opportunity to whoever addresses them to engage with the broader society (including their opponents) and possibly say something newsworthy in the presence of the media."