Courage to face the cowards
THERE are those with courage and then there are the bullies. Those with courage are the people who speak out for the rule of law and against corruption and the bullies are the thugs who try to intimidate them into silence.
Recently, KZN ANC MP Makhosi Khoza felt threatened by the party’s youth league in the province after she posted on Facebook that she would not vote for an immoral leader. Taking this as an attack on their man, ANC president Jacob Zuma, they threatened to picket outside her house and at events she attends.
Khoza was concerned she was being denied her right to freedom of speech.
This week there was the tragic death of SABC journalist Suna Venter, one of eight principled journalists who stood up for media freedom against the bullying of disgraced former COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng. They were fired and then reinstated. She was victimised, received death threats, and was shot in the face. Her family has described her sudden death as the result of a heart condition, brought on by the intimidation she endured in the last year.
Then we have the contemptible actions of the Black Land First (BLF) movement who arrived at the home of journalist Peter Bruce apparently to protest against the views that he had expressed in his newspaper column.
Even if Bruce’s writings were of such a poor standard that they forced this shadowy grouping to emerge from the stone they spend their time under, their actions would still be unacceptable. Bruce has the right to express his views as do those who disagree with him but this does not include paying a threatening visit to his home. That is terrorism.
It seems their intention was to send a chilling message to those who, like Bruce, are openly critical of the unacceptable role the Gupta family has been playing in this country.
We know this because the BLF openly said that they were attacking Bruce because of the “lies he was writing about the Guptas”. This is an attack on the freedoms many South Africans gave their lives for.
It is long overdue for the ANC-led government to place the Guptas and their running dogs on a leash. And bullies within the party. If it does not, it will have chosen the Guptas ahead of the people of South Africa.