Skewed reporting

THE world has witnessed the deaths of two great women in the past week.

Both had achieved their goals of uniting people in their respective ways. No one can fault these two giants of failing to bring about change in other people’s lives. I am referring here to Aretha Franklin and Mama Sobukwe.

After the death of Ms Franklin, not a day passed by without a mention being made about how great a human being she was. Radio stations, sports programmes, TV channels and newspapers all went agog about this fallen diva. Yes, I agree Ms Franklin was a great musician whose music touched many people’s lives.

A day before, Mrs Sobukwe had passed, and the same South African media that covered the life and achievements of Ms Franklin had not shown the same zeal in covering her life and times. It saddened me when I opened a local newspaper hoping to read more about Mrs Sobukwe only to find a small picture of Mr and Mrs Sobukwe with a few lines about her life story. Not to be outdone, a Sunday newspaper had a beautiful, smiling picture of Ms Franklin on its front page but not so for our own fallen heroine.

I hope Julius Malema, Mbuyiseni, Ndlozi, Floyd Shivambu and Thabo Mbeki have noticed this skewed, eurocentric reporting by our media houses.

South Africa has so many unsung heroes and heroines that we only hear and read about after their passing.

We need to celebrate these gallant South Africans while they are still alive, and I am certain that Marcus Garvey, Sam du Bois, Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Thabo Mbeki, and many other patriots would agree with me.

I would like to urge our Minister of Arts Nathi Mthethwa and Mathole Motshekga to honour Mrs Sobukwe and other South Africans of note by suggesting our media run stories about their achievements.