In a social media post introducing the ANC’s annual report for 2024, party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the following: “The January 8 statement set out the following seven tasks for 2024, which we give account of in the annual report.”
He then proceeded to list eight tasks. You probably couldn’t ask for a better metaphor for the government’s failure to deliver on its mandate. Such attention to detail is, indeed, why we find ourselves in a country where basic services have broken down — or, if we want to frame it optimistically, are breaking down.
It’s also instructive to see the order in which the ANC listed the eight “seven” tasks; one assumes they are numbered in order of priority.
No 1 is “Winning a decisive victory in 2024”. No 2 is “Intensifying the renewal of the ANC”. All the way down at No 7 is “Strengthening the fight against crime and corruption”, and the wildly hubristic No 8 is “Building a better Africa and a just, equitable and more humane world”.
In between the really important stuff, like making sure the ANC gravy train rolls on even if our actual trains don’t, is filler nonsense like reconstructing the economy to create more jobs and growth, improving basic services and infrastructure, combating gender-based violence and building the family, and resolving the energy crisis and ending load-shedding.
How does the ANC rate itself in terms of accomplishing the eight tasks it set itself?
In only one of the tasks does it claim any sort of success, and that’s No 6, where it claims “substantial progress achieved” in resolving the energy crisis and ending load-shedding. Its No 1 task, “Winning a decisive victory in 2024”, is judged as “not accomplished”, and No 2, “Intensifying the renewal of the ANC”, is marked “ongoing with significant challenges”.
Four tasks are scored as “ongoing with mixed results”, “ongoing with persistent deficiencies”, “ongoing and critical challenge” and “ongoing and severe challenge”.
The task that you might have thought was the most difficult, which is to fix Africa and the world, is apparently going well, where the ANC is “actively engaged and making progress”. While acknowledging that “global conflicts and challenges persist (e.g. in DRC, Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza)”, the report also points out that “despite perceptions of overreaching in its international ambitions, the ANC’s track record shows that its efforts are grounded in a genuine desire to contribute to global peace and shared prosperity. Thus, South Africa’s international relations reflect a consistent vision that prioritises global peace, sustainable development and economic growth for all.”
Which is all very well, but maybe a bit more focus on our plight here in South Africa would be nice.
So how is the ANC going to address the fact that, and I quote its own pretty frank self-assessment, “because of poor performance as the governing party particularly in the recent period, the malfeasance of some of its leaders and the incoherence of its message, the ANC is faced with the harsh reality that the legendary dominance of ideas it enjoyed in South Africa before and during the democratic transition has drastically diminished”.
The easiest way to dodge responsibility, as demonstrated by corrupt politicians the world over, is to blame someone else. In its report, the ANC claims that “defeating the ANC and bringing its majority below 50% was a campaign objective shared by capital, global forces, media as well as opposition parties on the right and the left of the political spectrum.”
So everyone else’s fault, in other words. Mbalula decided to focus on the media, which puts him in the same camp as US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called the media the enemy of the people; Trump’s buddy Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil, who frequently described journalists as enemies; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán; and a host of other politicians who needed scapegoats to distract attention from their own democratic failings.
Here’s Mbalula on X: “We must raise an uncomfortable but necessary issue: the rise of unethical behaviour within sections of the media, and the corrosive impact it is having on South Africa’s democracy. The ANC is gravely concerned by the growing pattern of what can only be described as captured journalism; a disturbing phenomenon where certain journalists are no longer reporting the news but are actively involved in shaping political agendas, settling scores and waging battles on behalf of those they align with or represent.
“This is not journalism; it is political warfare waged under the banner of the Fourth Estate. We respect media freedom, we fought for it, but that freedom must never be confused with impunity. The South African public has a right to expect truth, balance and accountability from its media; not scripted propaganda manufactured in the corridors of political handlers.”
Oh, the deep irony of all this. The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) issued a release with the assertive title “Sanef challenges Fikile Mbalula to report any cases of unethical journalistic practice”, pointing out that while Mbalula publicly attacked the media, accusing journalists (who he couldn’t name) of being part of factions in the ANC and of having an agenda against the ANC, “Mbalula did not provide any evidence or clarity on the instances that he was referring to”.
That’s because the only real examples of media being captured are those that were captured by Mbalula’s own party. Who can forget the heady days of ANN7, where state money was lavishly funnelled to the Guptas to keep their pro-ANC (and specifically pro-Jacob Zuma) content mill going? And it wasn’t just State Capture TV pushing the government line, there was also the SABC under the crazed leadership of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the man who put the gibberish into Goebbels.
Sanef goes further, saying: “We challenge Mbalula to report any instance of suspected criminal conduct by journalists to the relevant law enforcement agencies. As a former cabinet minister, we expect him to know which relevant law enforcement door to knock on.”
That shows a high level of confidence in the integrity of South African media. All of which is not to say that there aren’t media houses that might stray from what is generally considered to be the high ethical standard of South African journalism. We need only look at Independent Media to see that. And unquestionably, journalism standards have suffered with the proliferation of platforms and the fragmentation of audiences and business plans.
There’s also the fact that media houses do all have their own biases, unconscious or not. While the news media in South Africa functions as a watchdog for our democracy, it needs, and has, its own watchdogs as well. There’s the Press Code, and the organisations responsible for adjudicating complaints against the media, namely the Press Council of South Africa and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa. But these aren’t enough, which is why media organisations value so highly the critical attention of their audiences.
In its annual report, the ANC points out that its “brand has been significantly impacted by corruption scandals and governance challenges”. It also, perhaps strangely, cites “the decline of traditional media, and the rise of digital platforms, as well as the rise of AI, [as having] all contributed to a challenging communications landscape.
“Public perceptions of the ANC remain dominated by narratives of corruption and inefficiency, resulting in diminished trust and respect for the party’s pronouncements. Over time, mainstream media have adopted an increasingly critical and adversarial stance towards the ANC, both as a political movement and as the governing party.”
All of which seems to indicate that the media is actually reporting the truth, and it’s up to the ANC to change the narrative by ticking off some successes in its next annual report.
Ironically, 2024’s report is at odds with Mbalula’s attempt to paint journalists as the enemy, effectively celebrating the relationship between government and the media. “Over the past year, the department of communications & information publicity has significantly strengthened media relations and public engagement, ensuring a continuous ANC presence in mainstream media. Through regular press briefings, interviews, and thought leadership pieces, the department has successfully amplified the ANC’s voice on key national issues. This has reinforced the party’s position as the leading force in shaping public discourse and driving the national transformation agenda.”
This, I would venture to suggest, is the way it should work. We don’t need politicians trying to turn citizens against media watchdogs, we need them to fix their shit so that the media finally has a good story to tell about them.
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