Don’t shoot the messengers: Comment
THERE is an abnormally long diatribe posted by ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa on the party’s website, saying that Weekend Post’s sister newspaper in East London, the Daily Dispatch, has been in cahoots with the opposition to plot the overthrow of the premier and the ruling party in the Eastern Cape.
Kodwa states that a 2015 bosberaad document of the newspaper leaked to the ANC includes several damning plans of the Daily Dispatch to tarnish the ANC Eastern Cape chairman and premier, Phumullo Masualle, and “collapse” the Eastern Cape government.
The rest of Kodwa’s missive shifts into hysterical accusations of “the hidden oppositional party political agenda driven by some in the media under the cover of investigative journalism”.
He makes the baseless claim that “this once again reveals to light our deep seated reservation about the commitment of Times Media Group and others within the existing media monopoly to the transformation agenda of this country. This type of journalism is tantamount to a witch hunt and a blatant departure from the norms and standards expected of media institutions . . .”
Daily Dispatch editor Bongani Siqoko maintains he knows nothing about the alleged document, he has not held a bosberaad this year, nor has the paper planned to unseat the government.
That the ANC can believe a newspaper would want to, or be able to topple a premier and provincial government is laughable – and illustrates the ruling party’s paranoia. This in a province which the party won by 70%.
What is not laughable, is the threats to the lives of the Daily Dispatch editor and a colleague that have stemmed from this paranoia.
It is patently clear that, despite the ANC’s overwhelming majority in the Eastern Cape, the Daily Dispatch’s exposure of corruption, tender rigging and appalling service delivery has rattled the cages of those in power.
What the newspaper has done is perform its role as a watchdog on behalf of its readers, causing great unease amongst those who are exposed as beneficiaries of corruption.
The Dispatch’s award-winning exposure of the millions of rands of public funds allegedly squandered instead of being spent on Nelson Mandela’s funeral has left egg on the faces of many Eastern Cape ANC leaders.
It is these uncomfortable truths that Mr Kodwa and the ANC need to deal with in the interests of the people of one of the poorest provinces in our country, as opposed to threatening the messengers who expose the rot.