Freedom from racism - a fundamental human right

Two days before the publication of the next edition of this journal, our country will celebrate Human Rights Day, March 21st, bestowed to the nation by the patriots who were massacred at Sharpeville on this day in 1960. I am therefore pleased to dedicate this Letter to the forthcoming Human Rights Day, which, from all points of view, is one of our most important public holidays. I genuinely hope that all South Africans, black and white, will make a special effort to attend the public events that have been organised to celebrate this pre-eminent day on our national calendar.

Truly to honour our Human Rights Day, and to address a pressing challenge, this Letter discusses an issue that was central to our liberation struggle, that informs the content of the continuing national reconstruction and development process, and remains central to the entrenchment of human rights in our country - the elimination of racism and racial discrimination.

While it is true that our movement has set itself the task to ensure that our country achieves this goal, we must also remember that this, together with the non-sexism we discussed on our last Letter, is one of the national objectives prescribed by our Constitution. The Founding Provisions in the Constitution identify non-racialism and non-sexism among the values on which the democratic Republic is and must be founded.

MULDER & LEON

In the last edition of ANC TODAY we recalled remarks we had made during our response to the National Assembly debate on the State of the Nation Address on 15 February 2007, discussing the transformation of the South African mind. In that response at the National Assembly, I also drew attention to comments made by the leaders of the opposition parties, the Freedom Front +, and the Democratic Alliance, Pieter Mulder and Tony Leon respectively, which comments are directly relevant to the discussion in our country about "change or the absence of change in our minds".

Dr Mulder said: "We do not know each other and do not debate with each other. Two minute speeches from this (parliamentary) podium are not debates." Mr Leon said: "as a nation we should spend more time listening to each other, and not be too quick to judge as illegitimate the concerns and expressions of any group."

Perhaps the one issue on which we do not spend enough time listening to one another, the challenge we should debate honestly and fearlessly, is the scourge of racism that permeates so much of the fabric of our society. The favourite words used to close down and prohibit any discussion on racism in our country are - 'don't play the race card'! It is also argued that such discussion is inimical to the task to achieve national reconciliation.

However, the fact of the matter is that racism remains a daily feature of our lives, a demon that must be exorcised, precisely to achieve national reconciliation, which must be confronted openly and on a sustained basis, if we are to achieve the Constitutional imperative of a non-racial society, as we must.

KAFFIRS AT THE WORK PLACE

Recently I was privileged to receive a report prepared by a group of independent investigators who had been asked to assess the cause of a labour dispute, as well as conflicts within management, in one South African company. In truth it is some of the content of this report that convinced me of the need to address the issue of racism in this Letter.

The report says that one of the white managers affected by the investigation, Mr X, "admitted that he and other white managers used the term 'kaffir' generally in the everyday conversation, and he saw nothing wrong with this. However he always made certain that he did not use this word when Africans were present, and also avoided calling anybody 'kaffir' to their face. Another manager sometimes flattened his nose with his finger as a derogatory reference to Africans."

Others said that Mr X "had referred to the national flag as a 'kaffir' flag. He had described March 1st last year, the day for our last local elections, as the 'kaffir stem dag', a day for 'kaffirs' to vote, and vote for a 'kaffir' government. Those who went to vote, and therefore did not come to work, would be marked as having been absent from work."

Mr X said he browsed "Internet sites that argued that God is for whites. He also refers to Africans as 'kusiete', Cushites, or 'edomiete', Edomites, which are Biblical references interpreted as referring to Africans and non-Jewish people of the Middle East.

Mr X had freely discussed his beliefs with other white managers, including "his interest in social history. The discussions covered many topics including the potential for a massive Black on Black civil war in South Africa in which poor Blacks would rise up against the black elite."

The report says that the African workers "fear Mr X, who always threatens to fire them, and does not listen or care for them. Failure to take action against Mr X for his racist remarks could well raise the levels of conflict and dissatisfaction amongst workers and lead to further disruptions at the workplace."

This account tells the story that racism is alive and well at the workplace. It tells the story that this racism does not just amount to bad language, to which we must be opposed. It has a direct, negative material impact on the lives of our people, especially the working people, communicating the message that apartheid is not dead. It is not something we should put out of sight, and therefore out of mind, by responding to all attempts to confront it as "playing the race card".

ARE THEY KOSHER?

I will now turn to another account about contemporary South Africa, which was conveyed to me verbally. Not long ago, one of my African colleagues in government, Mr A, bought and moved into a house in the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg. After some time, the only other African who lived on this street, Mr B, paid a courtesy call, to welcome Mr A to the neighbourhood.

During this visit he informed Mr A that one of the white neighbours, Mr C, and his family, were very concerned and uneasy that Mr A and his family has moved into the neighbourhood. Mr C had inquired from Mr B, who had lived on the street for some time, whether he knew Mr A, explaining that he and his family had been asking themselves the question - since they are Black, how do we know they are kosher - how do we know they are not criminals!

However, I must also say that subsequently, Mr C, a native white South African, visited the newly-arrived Mr A. In the end, he felt that during this first 90-minute encounter with Mr A, he had learnt so much of which he had not been aware about our country and government, that he had to invite Mr A and his wife to join his family over dinner at his house to continue their conversation. Now he felt that the rest of his family, and indeed other South Africans, also needed to be exposed to what the "A" family had to say.

THE CHALLENGE OF WHITE FEARS

In the period immediately preceding the transition in 1994, our movement grappled constantly with the phenomenon in our country then characterised as "white fears". President Nelson Mandela again addressed this issue in his Political Report to the 50th National Conference of the ANC in 1997, saying: "The prophets of doom have re-emerged in our country. In 1994, these predicted that the transition to democracy would be attended by a lot of bloodshed...

"(Now) their task is to spread messages about an impending economic collapse, escalating corruption in the public service, rampant and uncontrollable crime, a massive loss of skills through white emigration and mass demoralisation among the people either because they are white and therefore threatened by the ANC and its policies which favour black people, or because they are black and consequently forgotten because the ANC is too busy protecting white privilege.

"A massive propaganda campaign has been conducted on the issue of crime, in many instances without any regard and respect for the truth. We will ourselves discuss this matter because of our own serious concern radically to bring down the levels of crime. However, what is necessary is that anybody genuinely committed to this goal should make an objective study of this problem and avoid the serious distortions which result from this exploitation of this issue for partisan political purposes.

"Such a study for example will show that for Johannesburg, murder, attempted murder and culpable homicide taken together, have been declining steadily since 1994. Facts and figures actually disprove the notion that there has been a rapid escalation of these crimes and confirm that we inherited the high levels of these crimes from the apartheid system."

We returned to the issue of "white fears" seven years later in a 'Letter from the President' in ANC TODAY, Volume 4, No 9, 5-11 March 2004, entitled: "Voters will not be swayed by fear or fiction". Among other things we said:

"The fear-factor has long been a feature of white politics in our country. For long periods, this section of our population has been subjected to the unimaginable terrors of 'die swart gevaar' and 'die rooi gevaar', the 'black' and 'red' dangers... The danger of an imaginary one-party state that is now being used to frighten our electorate is nothing but a variation on the same theme. The 'gevaar' is cloaked in different words. It remains the same 'gevaar' nevertheless.

"Interestingly, the use of fear is totally alien to the liberation movement and to liberation politics. Freedom from fear is a necessary part of the range of objectives of those who fight for freedom...

"Historically, it may be that those accustomed to living in a world of fear have always found it difficult to believe that those they defined as a threat could ever see them as part of a new world of hope, enjoying freedom from fear...Thus, even in changed circumstances, such as ours, when time and practice have proved that the phobias of the past were mere phobias, those used to frightening themselves or being frightened by others, would not find it too difficult to revert to the accustomed world of fear of the future."

THE BATTLE AGAINST CRIME

As Nelson Mandela observed in 1997, we have continued to express our own serious concern radically to bring down the levels of crime, and have consistently acted to achieve this result. The fact of unacceptably high levels of crime in our country is not in dispute. Nevertheless, in the light of what follows, none among us should be surprised when, as is customary, those who are determined to avoid confronting the difficult issues we raise in this Letter, seek to divert attention away from discussing the relationship between racism and the perception of crime, by falsely and dishonestly claiming that I am trying to deny or minimise the seriousness of the incidence of crime in our country.

The matter we seek to discuss, in the context of the struggle to create a non-racial society, is what Nelson Mandela identified as the phenomenon of the re-emergence of the prophets of doom, who "spread messages about...rampant and uncontrollable crime", conducting "a massive propaganda campaign...on the issue of crime, in many instances without any regard and respect for the truth." The question to ask is - why did this happen then, and why does it continue to happen now?

The answer is suggested by the question posed by the Mr C we mentioned above, who asked, anxiously - since they are Black, how do we know they are kosher! That answer lies in the deeply entrenched racism that has convinced Mr X that Africans are Cushites and Edomites, who have since time immemorial, been repudiated by a God who is only a God of the Whites.

THE BLACK PERSON'S BURDEN

The United States (US) has a long head-start relative to us, regarding the issue of racism and crime. All of us would do well to study US experience in this regard, especially the public discourse that has simultaneously sought to address both the incidence of crime and the manner in which racism feeds off this issue.

For instance in this regard, in 2000, Manning Marable, Professor of History and Political Science, and Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, published an article entitled, "Racism, Prisons, and the Future of Black America". Among other things he said:

"For a variety of reasons, rates of violent crime, including murder, rape, and robbery, increased dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s. Much of this increase occurred in urban areas. By the late 1970s, nearly one half of all Americans were afraid to walk within a mile of their homes at night...

"Politicians like Richard M. Nixon, George Wallace, and Ronald Reagan began to campaign successfully on the theme of 'Law and Order'. The death penalty, which was briefly outlawed by the Supreme Court, was reinstated. Local, state, and federal expenditures for law enforcement rose sharply.

"Behind much of anti-crime rhetoric was a not-too-subtle racial dimension, the projection of crude stereotypes about the link between criminality and black people. Rarely did these politicians observe that minority and poor people, not the white middle class, were statistically much more likely to experience violent crimes of all kinds...

"The driving ideological and cultural force that rationalised and justifies mass incarceration is the white American public's stereotypical perceptions about race and crime. As Andrew Hacker perceptively noted in 1995, 'Quite clearly, 'black crime' does not make people think about tax evasion or embezzling from brokerage firms. Rather, the offences generally associated with blacks are those ...involving violence.' A number of researchers have found that racial stereotypes of African Americans - as 'violent', 'aggressive', 'hostile' and 'short-tempered' - greatly influence whites' judgments about crime."

More recently, on 22 May 2005, the Boston Globe newspaper carried an article by Christopher Shea, in which he said that UCLA Law Professor, Jerry Kang, "argued in the Harvard Law Review this spring, that obsessive coverage of urban crime by local television stations is one of the engines driving lingering racism in the United States. So counterproductive is local broadcast news, he says, that it is time the FCC (the governmental Federal Communications Commission), stopped using the number of hours a station devotes to local news as evidence of the station's contribution to the 'public interest'...Far from contributing to the public interest, Kang argues, local news, with its parade of images of urban criminality, serves as a 'Trojan Horse' or 'virus' keeping racism alive in the American mind."

THE KAFFIRS ARE COMING!

With regard to the foregoing, the fact of the matter is that we still have a significant proportion of people among the white minority, but by no means everybody who is white, that continues to live in fear of the black, and especially African majority. For this section of our population, that does not "find it too difficult to revert to the accustomed world of fear of the future", every reported incident of crime communicates the frightening and expected message that - the kaffirs are coming!

The colleague in government to whom I referred, Mr A, posed the rhetorical question - why are the Whites so determined to frighten themselves! The answer of course is that they have taken no such decision. Rather, the problem is that entrenched racism dictates that justification must be found for the persisting white fears of "die swart gevaar".

All incidents of crime, preferably broadcast as loudly as possible, provide such justification, as have other issues, such as those mentioned by Nelson Mandela in 1997, and as the impending victory of the ANC in 2004 was used to incite white fears that our movement was about to establish a one-party state!

As we observed earlier in this Letter, Dr Mulder said: "We do not know each other and do not debate with each other. Two minute speeches from this podium are not debates." Mr Leon said: "as a nation we should spend more time listening to each other, and not be too quick to judge as illegitimate the concerns and expressions of any group."

As we celebrate Human Rights Day, it remains to be seen whether we have the will to know one another and to debate with one another; whether we are willing to spend more time listening to one another, educating ourselves not be too quick to judge as illegitimate the concerns and expressions of any group; and whether we have the courage to engage in a truth and reconciliation process even with regard to the challenge of openly confronting the cancer of deeply dehumanising racist stereotypes that developed over many centuries.

The resolve to educate ourselves to not be too quick to judge as illegitimate the concerns and expressions of any group must include not being too quick to judge as illegitimate the concerns and expressions of the African people, the historic victims of racism, who remain deeply disturbed that some in positions of power still think it is normal to speak of them as "kaffirs", and others among our white compatriots think that it is natural to ask the question - since they are Black, how do we know they are not criminals!

A YOUTHFUL DREAM

The website www.fin24.co.za carries a moving letter written by a young, 22-year-old, African professional, Bonga Bangani, who worked as an intern at the Investec offices in Cape Town. He wrote this letter out of frustration at the racism he experienced in this branch of one of our major financial institutions. Knowing that this might get him into trouble at the workplace, he said:

"Losing my job over issues that I feel strongly about is the least of my concerns, as unemployment, crime and poverty have been a part of my life since the day I was born. I was born and bred in a black South African township. I'm not ashamed to say that because it's part of my history and my history is part of who I am. However, despite all those obstacles, I've managed to get myself to where I am today - working for the Investec Treasury and Specialised division - an achievement I'm very proud of."

Bonga goes on to say: "The truth is that our democracy is still young. We don't fully understand one another (black and white) because we've been segregated for so long; we probably don't trust one another enough because we're not sure of each other's intentions. The only way that could solve this is by interacting with one another and by cleansing ourselves from the stereotypes we have about each other. The one thing we all have to accept is that for as long as we live in this country, we're stuck with each other and the sooner we learn to accept each others' differences and start treating each other with mutual respect and fairness, the sooner we will get to understanding each other and working towards a common goal and living in a South Africa in which our families and children can prosper and live in peace & harmony with one another. A South Africa in which the benefits of diversity (that are currently being missed by most SA corporates) would be realised. That's if we're willing to do so. I sure hope Investec Cape Town is willing to go in that same direction someday."

There can be no better message to all of us as we celebrate Human Rights Day than these very wise words from a young African professional in his early twenties. The historic task to build a non-racial democracy, to achieve social and national cohesion, to advance the goal of national reconciliation, to secure the human rights of all our people, black and white, demands that all of us must answer the question honestly - did all of us, including the corporations, really listen when young Bonga Bangani dared to speak out to communicate to all of us the dreams of our youth for a new South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it, united in their diversity!

Project Consolidate

Support to councils shows progress and provides lessons

Project Consolidate, a hands-on support programme to local government launched in 2004, has proven to be a critical milestone in the development of this important sphere of government, tasked with delivering services to our people.

It represents an important material sign of what can be achieved through a cooperative system of governance. Various municipalities can now point to the positive ways in which the lives of their residents have been touched by the intervention of Project Consolidate. It is an experience that comes amid our pursuit during the current term of local government of the targets of government's Vision 2014 and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This term ends in 2011.

This week, the Department of Provincial and Local Government released two publications that speak to the experience and lessons derived from the implementation of Project Consolidate on the ground.

The first publication gives an outline of the impact made through the deployment of Service Delivery Facilitators (SDFs). These are experts deployed into the targeted municipalities to enhance and reinforce municipal performance and service delivery; promote a new culture of performance and accountability in municipalities; create a disposition of collective responsibility and accountability for governance and performance across all spheres of government; and lastly, to strengthen the capacity of government by gathering empirical information that can be analysed and used to refine existing policies and programmes. The experiences of the SDFs are already informing the refinement of support programmes to municipalities.

The second publication consists of a collection of case studies. These are case studies covering eight municipalities in different provinces where Project Consolidate interventions have changed the lives of our people for the better. Issues covered include the eradication of the bucket system, provision of electricity, provision of water, tarring of roads, revamping of customer care centres and effective public participation.

Together, these publications show an accelerated pace in the effort to redress service-delivery and infrastructure development backlogs. Looking at achievements against our headline goals, not only are we on course to meet the UN Development Millennium Goals, but we are also on course to meet our own national targets, which happen to be more ambitious than the global targets. We have said that by the end of 2007 there shall be an end to the use of the abominable bucket system as a means of sanitation, that there shall be universal access to clean running water by 2008, decent and safe sanitation by 2010 and electricity for all by 2012.

Between February 2005 and November 2006, 110,000 sanitation bucket systems had been eradicated. Access to free basic water by the poor and indigent households increased from 55% in 2004 to 85% in 2006. The number of total national households with access to water between 2004 and 2006 has increased by 540,660 households. The backlog was reduced by 12%.

We should however be cautious about overemphasising the need to expedite the process of wiping out backlogs at the expense of paying sufficient attention to building capacity for the long term. We must always remember that such a step-change as has been achieved was a result of external stimulation rather than reliance on resident municipal capabilities. This reality tells us that it will take a coherent, concerted, consistent and long-term effort of government, industry and civil society cooperation to achieve the goals we have set.

From this, it is also clear that the best way to judge our performance is to assess it against our headline goals and to determine whether we have the credible means for meeting those goals. In this regard, it is worth noting -as the case studies show - that in addition to the realisation of acceleration of the provision of water and electricity, some of the achievements include unblocking housing projects, increasing payment levels, getting municipalities to submit financial statements timeously for the first time in years, and filling of vacant posts.

Again, this points to the need for systematic solutions to the problems which our municipalities face. Take for instance, the issue of financial viability in local government. We sought to address the issue through a multiplicity of measures, including a remarkably impressive year-on-year increase of allocations to local government ( through local government equitable share and conditional grants). The equitable share helps municipalities deliver free basic services to communities, while the conditional grants help them to, among other things, address their infrastructure challenges. The equitable share increased from R18.1 billion in 2006/07 to R20.7 billion in 2007/08, to R23.7 billion in 2008/2009 and it is forecast to grow to R29.4 billion 2009/10.

Over the 2007 Medium Term Expenditure Framework period, R24.7 billion is available for the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) programme. This reflects the government's objective of expanding the delivery of basic services to poor households and alleviating poverty. Municipalities will also receive indirect transfers regarding the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadia development, public transport infrastructure and systems, and the national electrification programme.

The department sought to address the issue of municipal financial viability by deploying SDFs into 12 municipalities, which are serving as pilot sites. One of these municipalities, the Nelson Mandela Metro, has reported that since the appointment of an SDF on the 15 May 2005, the municipality improved and sustained revenue collection rates. The revenue collection rates now stand at 98%. The municipality is currently reviewing its revenue collection master plan, and working towards a new billing system that will be concluded in March 2008, in line with the frameworks for the implementation of the new Municipal Property Rates Act.

The department plans to continue publishing the Project Consolidate series on a quarterly basis as part of a knowledge management package. The significance of this series is that it will allow learning to take place beyond the boundaries of the municipalities to which SDFs have been deployed. To date some 281 experts and professionals have been deployed to Project Consolidate municipalities. We believe therefore, that in the 85 municipalities to whom we have so far been able to deploy SDFs, we are putting on the ground benchmarks for emulation by others.

In 2007, we intend, to mainstream the lessons of Project Consolidate to the rest of the country's municipalities. We will improve the capacity of provincial government through the offices of the premiers to enhance capacity for inter-sphere coordination. Capacity will be provided to provincial departments responsible for local government affairs to enable them to provide sustained support to local government. Resources will be leveraged from other spheres of government and the non-government sector for more hands-on interaction with municipalities.

** Sydney Mufamadi is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee and Minister of Provincial and Local Government. This is an edited extract from an address to the Johannesburg Press Club, 13 March 2007.

What the media says

The British Bulldog barks again

The BBC has been at it again. On its BBC News website, as we write this article, it carries an item of news dated 10 March 2007, headed, "Thousands march against SA (South African) crime".

Among other things the news item says, "Thousands of South Africans have marched in some of the country's main cities in protest at the high levels of violent crime. Politicians, religious leaders and schoolchildren were on the streets of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town...The protesters want a change in what they call the government's relaxed attitude towards policing...

"While the overall crime rate in South Africa has shown signs of a downturn, President Thabo Mbeki admitted in February that people lived in fear of violent crime and promised an increase in police numbers. Just weeks before, he had insisted that most South Africans did not think the crime rate in their country was getting out of hand."

It is true that anti-crime demonstrations took place in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town on 9 March, as the BBC and other media organisations reported. However, it is entirely untrue that thousands of South Africans participated in these demonstrations. As far as we can determine, the BBC was the only and sole media organisation that saw thousands of demonstrators on our streets, whereas everybody else counted, at most, up to a combined national total of 500 demonstrators.

As the BBC reported, it is true that among these 500 demonstrators were politicians, religious leaders and school children. However, it is perfectly obvious that the BBC report in question was composed in a manner that sought to suggest the existence of a mass national revolt against our government on the issue of crime, spontaneously attracting even children, in addition to our political and religious leaders.

What the BBC did not mention was that the political leaders to whom it referred are leaders of opposition political parties. These parties, as part of normal and legitimate practice in any democracy, have, in our country, picked on the issue of crime as part of their platform to express their opposition to our government, and gain whatever political advantage they can from propagating a particular perception about "the government's relaxed attitude towards policing".

Of note, in this regard, and within the context of the suggested national revolt against our government on the issue of crime, is the fact that even these political leaders, given whatever might be their national and localised popularity, did not bring to the demonstrations any of the "thousands" of demonstrators the BBC reported to have marched on our streets, but who, in truth, only marched in the virtual computer streets created by BBC News.

As the BBC knows very well, like contemporary British society as a whole, South African society is seriously concerned about the national challenge of crime prevention and combating. This concern includes the ruling party and our movement, the ANC, as well as our government. In our case, it is not at all necessary for the BBC to invent "thousands" of demonstrators or suggest a mass national revolt against our government, to substantiate any report that our society, like British society as a whole, is seriously concerned that government must do everything necessary and possible to reduce the incidence especially of violent crime.

In this regard, once again, we must also say that even before our liberation in 1994, the ANC recognised the hard reality that apartheid had left our democracy with a deeply entrenched legacy especially of violent crime. What President Mbeki said about crime not being out of control, was not in any way inconsistent with what he said, as correctly reported by the BBC, concerning a national fear of violent crime and our government's undertaking to increase the size of our police service. For our part, we would never use the phrase "out of control", as in the instance of a veld fire, unless we sought to describe a situation that was "out of control", or "out of hand", to cite the phrase the BBC used.

In Vol 7 No 7 of ANC TODAY we carried an article that criticised a BBC World report that purported to report on crime in South Africa. The BBC responded to our comments. We published the complete text of that response in our Vol 7 No 8, in which the BBC said: "Having reviewed the report by John Simpson on crime in Johannesburg, BBC World not only stands by the piece but also refutes all allegations by the ruling African National Congress of racism, as published on its website on 16 February."

In our Editor's comment following the BBC statement, we suggested that, "we and the BBC should always interact with each other with honesty, integrity and mutual respect, always ready openly to admit our mistakes, if either one of us does make a mistake, as will inevitably happen."

When we made these comments, we were very mindful of the eminently correct and critically important ethics of journalism that the BBC claims to uphold. In this regard, for instance, speaking in the British House of Lords on 28 April 1998, Lord Moynihan said:

"In this Committee there is overwhelming consensus that the BBC World Service sets accepted standards of excellence. By providing an objective and accurate source of information, it is internationally acclaimed ­- most rightly so - as an upholder and promoter of democracy. For millions, including world leaders in the fight for democracy, such as Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader in Burma, and Nelson Mandela, now President of South Africa, the World Service has provided a beacon of fair, trusted and respected news coverage - more so than any of its free world rivals...The World Service is a uniquely powerful asset on the world stage. It projects those critical and fundamentally important values of democracy, objectivity and fairness, which are then identified by opinion formers as British values. Its voice helps shape this country's reputation and image."

In a report presented to the British Parliament in December 2005, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said the "BBC World Service (must) enhance its position as the best, as the best known and most respected voice in international radio and online broadcasting."

In its Editorial Guidelines, relating to "Nations & regions", the BBC says: "In the UK there are different national and regional sensitivities which we should respect and reflect. There are differences in the powers of Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and the assemblies of Wales and Northern Ireland. There are also big differences in the legal systems in the nations, as well as in the provision of education, health and social services. We must be both accurate and consistent in our coverage and avoid stereotypes or clichés."

All these are exactly the same points that ANC TODAY has sought to make in its public debate with the BCC, namely that: as media organisations, including our own lowly ANC TODAY, we must serve as objective and accurate sources of information, and beacons of fair, trusted and respected news coverage, systematically and consciously strive to be the most respected voices in journalism globally, and work continuously to be both accurate and consistent in our coverage, deliberately avoiding stereotypes or clichés.

In our article on the BBC in our Vol 7 No 7, we sought to urge the BBC to "avoid stereotypes or clichés" in its reports about our country, precisely to sustain its reputation and credibility as "an objective and accurate source of information and a beacon of fair, trusted and respected news coverage".

Most unfortunately, presumably to prove that it was right to broadcast its grossly distorted BBC World report to which we objected, and that we were wrong to object, the BBC has now compounded the problem against which we warned, by concocting and broadcasting news about anti-crime demonstrations in three of our cities, attended by "thousands", which never attracted such numbers or in any way communicated a spontaneous national revolt against our government.

We would and will never complain about the BBC approaching the serious problem of crime in our country, as in the UK, as a matter on which it must carry regular reports, while remaining sensitive to the need to communicate to its listeners and viewers a balanced picture of our country, which is by no stretch of imagination predominantly characterised by crime that is "getting out of hand".

As the BBC continues to report the incidence of crime in our country, as it should and will, we would, once again, urge that it approaches this issue objectively, avoiding stereotypes and clichés, and a herd instinct, which characterise much of our own domestic media reporting. In this regard, for instance, we would like to draw the attention of the BBC to a 7 March 2007 report that appeared in the South African media, to which its South African Bureau would have had immediate access. This report says:

"South Africa should not see itself as the 'criminal skunk' of the world because many other countries in transition had the same high crime prevalence. Dap Louw, a psychology professor at the University of the Free State, said South Africans should also not develop a 'learned helplessness syndrome' - characterised by powerlessness and incapability in the fight against crime.

"Louw, also a renowned criminologist, said during a symposium in Bloemfontein on violent crimes: 'A positive national self-image should be promoted to combat the cynicism, distrust and depression that disempower South Africans to actively take part in the fight against crime. We can do something about it instead of just talking about it around braais (barbecue grills/parties).'

"Louw said the crime situation in South Africa should be put in perspective because this was something the South African media 'clearly did not specialise in...We lived in an abnormal society (apartheid); now we live in a normal society in a country in transition.'

"Louw said other transitional countries that had experienced the same crime situation as South Africa were Russia, Estonia, Cambodia and Poland. Louw said the media in other non-transitional countries like America, Wales, England and Australia had also reported on 'concerns' of an increase of violent crime in 1996.

"'These people are in the same boat as you and me,' said Louw, himself also a crime victim, having being stabbed twice in the back. Looking at the causes of crime, Louw said South Africans should not look further than themselves, and must stop pointing fingers at others. Louw quoted 19th century French criminologist Jean Lacassagne who said: 'Every society gets the number of criminals it deserves'...

"Civil Society Initiative chairman, Roelf Meyer, agreed that crime with a 'violent element' should be researched. Reasons for the 'mindset' must be found. Meyer said ways of improving the crime situation included involving the private sector in police training, proper and good management of policing at grass-roots level, and getting civil society involved."

The renowned criminologist, Professor Dap Louw, called on all of us, which must include the BBC and ANC TODAY, to avoid wrongly treating South Africa as the "criminal skunk" of the world, a frame of mind objectively born of the stereotypes and clichés that editorially, and very correctly, the BBC is determined to avoid.

We invite the BBC independently to check and verify every single fact contained or implied in this article, as well as in our previous two articles in which the BBC features. If the BBC proves that we have falsified reality, or, in plain language, told lies, we will publish our failings in this regard in this journal, without qualification. Naturally, we will also publish, in full, any comment made by the BBC that shows that we told lies.

We are convinced that the truth and the important issue of integrity in public communication, will find no comfort in the resort to the standard media reflex action that, for some strange reason, seems to have convinced media organisations that they should avoid admitting any failure to report truthfully, by saying, as the BBC said in response to our earlier criticism, "Having reviewed the report by John Simpson on crime in Johannesburg, BBC World...stands by the piece..."

The BBC World Service, the radio, television and internet section of the British Broadcasting Corporation that daily communicates with the rest of the world, operates within the context of a formal "Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO -Foreign Ministry)/BBC World Service Broadcasting Agreement". Among other things, the Agreement says: "This Agreement defines the relationship between the FCO and the BBC World Service, including the aims and objectives of the World Service, its target audiences and provisions for performance assessment...The Secretary of State is responsible for agreeing with the BBC World Service its objectives and medium term priority target audiences defined geographically and by audience segment, and appropriate performance measures."

During the House of Lords debate to which we have referred, the Member of the House of Lords representing the British Government said: "The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, made proper reference to the relationship between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the BBC World Service. He paid a well deserved tribute to the BBC World Service. I am answering this amendment because of my responsibility at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. My noble friend Lady Symons is the Minister within the Foreign Office responsible for relationships with the BBC World Service. She tells me that she meets Sam Younger of the World Service at least once a month and that there are continuing discussions on the 20 points to which the noble Lord referred."

We do not have a similar institutionalised process of regular interaction between our government and our public broadcaster, the SABC, including SABC Africa. For this reason, and because our government has not interacted with its British counterpart in this regard, we do not know what the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs discusses monthly with the BBC World Service, or whether this practice is still sustained at the same frequency. Our ignorance includes lack of knowledge about what would be entailed in the actual content of the government/BBC interaction concerning, "(the BBC World Service) objectives and medium term priority target audiences defined geographically and by audience segment, and appropriate performance measures."

Nevertheless, we can say this, that it will help neither the BBC, nor honest and ethical journalism, nor general adherence to truthfulness in the conduct of public affairs, that anyone, including all media organisations and ourselves as politicians, feels free to communicate the deeply disturbing message that anybody has the right and liberty to demonise any country, using subtle and sophisticated communication techniques, to propagate deliberate falsehoods.

We do not know whether the BBC will, once again, "stand by the piece" that put on our streets "thousands" of demonstrators who never took to our streets. Regardless of this, we are nevertheless convinced that no decent person or organisation whatsoever should derive a feeling of impunity, and comfort in the abuse of power, from the knowledge that they enjoy pre-eminent and secure positions as national and global purveyors of information, disinformation, and propaganda, thus to convince themselves that they have the liberty to manufacture such blatant falsehoods as the BBC saw fit to broadcast to the world, when it falsely reported that thousands of anti-crime demonstrators took to the streets of three of our main cities to protest against our government.

Return to Index