April 6, 2000
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (PANA) - Apart from former president Nelson Mandela, the white media portray South Africa's black leadership as corrupt, anti-democratic, dictatorial and contemptuous of the population.
This scathing attack was made by the ruling African National Congress in its submission to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) on Wednesday.
The HRC, which is conducting a major enquiry into racism in the media, was told by Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, that the country's white media measured Mandela's success because what he said and did was consistent with what they considered as necessary to allay white fears.
He said white editors and journalists regarded Mandela as an exception to the country's ruling black elite. Radebe accused the white media of distorting the facts to propagate their stereotype of black South Africans.
Radebe said a concerted effort must be made to de-racialise the ownership, management and editorial control of media organisations in the country.
"A serious effort must be made to convince everybody working in the media that they have a responsibility to contribute what they can to the achievement of the constitutional objective of the creation of a non-racial society," he said.
The South African Communist Party, in its submission, agreed that there could be no freedom of speech under the present media ownership in South Africa.
The SACP's general secretary, Blade Nzimande, described the South African media as a racial oligarchy serving wealthy white interests. He accused white editors of using the needs of the market as an excuse to deny or defuse issues of black people, women and the black working class in their publications.
The Democratic Party, the country's official opposition party, on Thursday reacted angrily to the latest submissions, saying the ANC is in an advanced state of denial and self- delusion.
"The HRC now has a very big problem on its hands. It cannot preach race theory to the media as it had intended when the government is using the HRC as a platform for racist theory which sounds remarkably like the accusations of subliminal racism which pre-empted the misrepresentation of ascertainable facts and if it does not refute the proposition that former President Mandela has an Uncle Tom image.
"The HRC will lose all credibility if it does not challenge the ANC's image," said DP spokesman Dene Smuts.
The HRC, which is responsible for ensuring that the country's constitution is upheld, announced last year that it would conduct an inquiry into racism in the media, after receiving complaints from black lawyers' and accountants' associations alleging racial bias in stories published in South Africa.
Its final report is expected to be released in September.