NEWS & ANALYSIS

The DA's agents in the media

Sizwe Nyenyiso says inexperienced black youth being captured with foreign money and branded with neo-liberal policies

DA candidate list: media partisanship, planting agents and tokenism!

Our country prepares for the 5th general elections since the collapse of the white minority government and political parties of different ideologies are revealing their policies and preferred candidates for public office. The 5th general election will continue to deepen our democratic gains and to protect freedoms that are guaranteed in our Constitution. 

The Constitution provides checks and balances to safeguard our democracy, including free press and other independent institutions. The Revolutionary Alliance of the ANC, SACP and Cosatu fought for these gaurantees and entrenched them in the supreme law of the land, the Constitution. It is therefore upon every South African to protect these hard won democratic gains from any abuse and manipulation. 

The demise of white minority government did not automatically translate to disapearance of white minority monopoly interests; to the contrary, they continue to subvert the democratic gains. The Democratic Alliance became the bastion and agent of monopoly capital for perpetuating the legacy of apartheid using the media and ramnants within the post-apartheid administration.

While the liberation movement has championed media and State transformation to reflect the aspirations of the poor marginalised majority population, the remnants of our past continue to undermine these institutions. In pursuit of their narrow party political interest and the broader neo-liberal agenda, the DA plants its agents to these social structures in a manner that poses danger to our young democracy.       

The media as one of the most important social instruments is expected to play a critical role in informing and educating the public in a manner that is neutral, balanced and non-partisan. This neutrality can only be protected if those in the newsroom do not habour any political agenda in conducting their work. This ethical requirement and expectation is a key pillar in promoting the integrity of journalism.

Judging from the recent developments, it is clear that this ethical consideration has been badly betrayed by the cosy relationship between the DA and the media. The inclusion of journalists in the DA's candidates list compromised the values of non-partisanship and neutrality by those who are expected to inform the public about the diverging views in society. 

It is not surprising but concerning that a number of journalists, including controversial Donwald Pressely is linked to the DA election list. Donwald Pressely's work as a DA representative in the Cape Town Press Club was noticeable over the years. As the Chairperson, he made the Press club a fiefdom Democratic Alliance and created a fertile environment that prioritised the articulation of DA policy and political direction.

He was badly exposed when he tried to subject Minister Joemat-Pettersson to the DA kangaroo court in May 2012. Minister Joemat-Pettersson had to protest after it became apparent that the press club breakfast that he was invited to was instead a DA accountability mechanism.

As cde Jackson Mthembu correctly characterised the Cape Town Press Club, then, that "Pressely presided over an institution that was founded on questionable grounds...given the fact that generally the membership of a press club is a preserve of professionals in the media space who are expected to be objective and non-partisan when it comes to party politics."

Based on this evidence, it is clear that the SACP was correct in characterising commercial media oligopolies as an anti-majoritarian liberalism that seeks to discredit and portray our congress movement, ANC as corrupt while profiling the DA as a holy political entity. We are concerned that the manipulation of social instruments for narrow political ends risks the erosion of our democratic values. 

We view this as a serious assault to our democracy, a threat to a constitutional guarantee of freedom of press and risk the integrity and objectivity of the institutions that are entrusted with balanced reporting. This confirms the correctness of the Party resolution to transform the media in particular. In this context the SACP's call for review of media ownership and the extent of monopolisation to ensure diversity and tolerance to diverging views is more urgent.

This list further exposes the DA agents that were planted in public institution, not for serving the South African public but to pursue the DA agenda. The SACP has cautioned against the risk posed by monopoly capital who constantly seeks to infiltrate the commanding heights of the society through aggressive lobbying and placement of candidates with like-minded candidates in key positions.

The  planting of these agents to steal  and volunteer state information to the media capital, collaborate with the private capital to amass State contracts and set up government institutions for failure is now publicly exposed. It is no longer secrete that these are DA agents in pursuit of foreign and local capital agenda, hence the ideological relationship with the media capital. The case in point is the appearance of both Glynnis Breytenbach and Ricardo McKenzie in the DA's election list. These are few of many agents that were planted by the DA and international capital in the State apparatus to serve its narrow political interests.

We are also not surprised that the DA is playing to the public gallery and the psych of our society by deepening its Black Political Empowerment (BPE) policy. DA has always been known as a reformist entity that recycled remnants of Nationalist Party, hence its strong support base among the white population. While the DA is predominately white, it is dreaming of capturing the so called "black vote" to capture state power in order to continue with its anti-working class policies as it is the case in the Western Cape. This task has proven to be close to impossible.

The DA has therefore hoped that the only way to attract black vote into its block is to capture the inexperienced black youth through foreign money and brand them with neo-liberal policies. This act of tokenism and BPE is done with a hope that these young people drawn from the squalors in our impoverished township will in return deliver the black vote to the DA in a "return-for-investment" kind of exercise.

However, this strategy has failed and continues fail. It is therefore important for the South Africa society not to be fooled by this act of tokenism while the DA is firm in its belief that where it governs every black person that exercises his/her right of freedom of movement is characterised as a refugee.  This hypocrisy of prompting BPE while protecting white interest in the economic participation should be understood for what it is.

This is the same DA that its attitude against the empowerment of the previously disadvantaged was extremely exposed through their opposition to the Affirmative Action and the Black Economic Empowerment. South Africans must therefore vote for the future that is inclusive and that embraces the diversity of humanity. It is our conviction that ANC is the only vehicle to deliver a society that benefit to the wealth of our country regardless of gender, colour and religion

Sizwe Nyenyiso is Member of the Battle of Ideas Commission of the South African Communist Party in the Brian Bunting District.

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