Deadly threat to all

The collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago exposed not only the bankruptcy of its ideology but the rich and obscene lifestyle of its leaders — the dachas where they romped and lolled and the extravagantly furnished bunkers where they would have safely repaired in the event of a nuclear attack. Meanwhile ordinary people were constantly exhorted to put their faith in the revolution. It was dachas for the cream of society and gulags for dissenters.

Communism is an ideology conceived in a lie. Leaders say one thing while doing the other. They live a life of deception. They don’t seem prepared to live the life or reality they often romanticise, or to which their policies condemn ordinary people. And because the media and other forms of communication are controlled by the state, the so-called working class are kept in the dark and therefore meekly accept their lot.

That is the nirvana that Blade Nzimande has in mind for us. The general secretary of the SA Communist Party, who works as minister for higher education when he feels like it, wants the media shackled because it has shown him up to be a hypocrite. This champion of the working class drives posh cars and lives it up in fancy hotels — at our expense. Now he wants a tribunal to stop or frustrate the media from telling the truth.

But that’s par for the course, I suppose. After all it was Vladimir Lenin who blurted: “Telling the truth is a bourgeois prejudice. Deception, on the other hand, is often justified by the goal.”

It’s revealing that the two men leading the campaign against the media have been in the news for the wrong reasons : Nzimande and communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda. Nyanda, the man with a fine taste for tenders, has seen his name crop up in many an unsavoury scrap as a result of his business dealings. He got a tender that got Siyabonga Gama fired at Transnet. He’s currently embroiled in a messy fight with his director- general, and tenders are at the heart of the dispute. On Sunday he wrote a long, rambling article in favour of a media tribunal. The logic was difficult to follow. He should stick to tenders.

There are those who may think the media is obsessed with gazing at its own navel. This is not a war waged against the media only, but against democracy itself. It challenges the very essence of our constitution. As the FM argued recently, it is a battle that should involve all strands of society — business, civil society — against those who are intent on imposing darkness on us, so that they can loot and plunder at will.

This is by no means an isolated attack. In the eyes of Jacob Zuma’s supporters, the media forms part of that axis of evil — to borrow a phrase — which almost denied their hero what he was due ; the other axis members being the Scorpions and the judiciary. Zuma’s triumph in Polokwane sounded the death knell for the Scorpions, who were immediately consigned to the scrapheap. The judiciary has been shouted down and almost cowed. Which leaves the media, with its enormous power to influence public opinion and to expose, shame and embarrass those in authority.

As Lenin once posed the question, what then is to be done? The media tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill seem to be the answer. The notion of “protecting” information from the public in a democracy is, frankly, bizarre.

It’s not the first time government has tried to rein in the media. The Nats tried several times, and failed each time . This lot, which seem keen to learn from their predecessors, will also fail. But that would demand concerted action from all sectors of society, including the business community. For once, business needs to raise its voice against what is arguably the biggest threat to our democracy since the fall of apartheid.

Source: Financial Mail: Barney Mthombothi