Message in ANC’s strike on ANN7

In what is a first for the ruling ANC, the party has launched a scathing attack on the Gupta-owned ANN7 television news channel, accusing it of being ‘‘determined to manufacture false consensus, sharpening contradictions and deepening fissures in the ANC’’. In a statement issued by Luthuli House after President Jacob Zuma was booed off stage during Cosatu’s May Day rally in Bloemfontein on Monday, the ANC lambasted the station for effectively acting as a ‘‘mouthpiece of the factional divisions that plague the ANC, consistently showing itself as being intent on driving wedges within the organisation and pitting comrade against comrade’’.

The problem, according to Luthuli House, is that ANN7 alleged that ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize ‘‘pushed’’ Zuma to attend the May Day rally, thus setting him up for humiliation.

It is no secret that ANN7 has always been viewed as a pro-government/ANC channel, so it is perhaps not unexpected that it is now emerging as a factional force, pushing the interests of not so much the ANC as a whole, but those of Zuma and his cabal. Be that as it may, the ANC – or perhaps the anti-Zuma faction in the party – pulled no punches on the channel’s coverage of the rally. ‘‘Such reportage is habitual and typical of ANN7 – devoid of truth, divisive and designed to create an illusion of ‘ANC insider’ status for the channel.’’

While the channel has in the past faced widespread criticism for being a pro-Zuma propaganda machine, it is the first time it has faced such an attack from the ANC itself. It is perhaps also the first time ever the ANC launched such a vicious attack on anyone for defending the president. Arguably, however, what the ANC is really saying is this: It is no longer acceptable to defend Zuma at all costs – not with so much at stake.