How about a state-run newspaper in South Africa?

By Madibeng Kgwete: posted on 16 August 2007

This may sound like the suggestion of someone living in and supporting an authoritarian regime, but, on a serious note, is it not time that the South African government considers introducing its own newspaper? I suggest this for two serious reasons. And, before you could read this article in full, you do not qualify to comment on the suggestion made.

1. Many good stories to tell, limited and skeptical platform to tell them

The first reason behind my suggestion for a state-run (not state-controlled) newspaper is that the new South African government, in its 13 years in office, has made great strides that have gone unnoticed because there is a limited platform through which such strides can be communicated to the people. In instances where this limited platform is utilised, the level of skepticism overwhelms the good news.

The same government, in the same period of time it has been in office, has also failed to do better in many critical areas, particularly in lowering the numbers of the unemployed, improving the standard and quality of education in public schools and distributing land equitably amongst racial groups. Where these shortcomings were observed, the privately-owned media has failed to provide thought-provoking analysis and useful recommendations.

People who are educated and experienced enough to provide the high level of intellectual debate we need are not given the platform to do so. Much of the newspaper spaces are occupied by lazy, half-baked columnists who do not read enough. They make incoherent and reactionary comments on the state of our young nation. The less said about our mostly junior, equally half-baked and lazy journalists, the better.

For all its sins, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was correct in its 2005 series, The Sociology of Public Discourse in South Africa, when it stated: “The challenge intellectually to define the future of our country has been and will remain as demanding and bruising as has been the continuing challenge practically to change South Africa into a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous homeland for all our people”.

Our media practitioners, particularly journalists and their editors (however denial they can be), also face the same “demanding and bruising” challenge to change our country. Unfortunately, many of them never admit that they need as much transformation as the rest of the society they live in. Worse still, they seem to have added the word “transformation” to the category of vulgar words. They want transformation almost everywhere, except in the mythical Tenth Province they live in.

2. The privately-owned media are not development-oriented

Secondly, I would like to use as an example the joint efforts of the Department of Education and some media houses in the education recovery plan following the recent public sector strike.
The introduction of the very useful “Study Mate” supplement to help learners catch-up with their studies is one classic example of how newspapers can contribute to the development of our country. Unfortunately, many of the privately-owned newspapers lack initiative and are in a bad habit of waiting for government to come up with ideas on nation-building partnerships.

The private newspaper industry is dominated by people who are good at pointing out the bad and the ugly in government, but do not ask them what they are doing to further develop the country they also live in (hence their mythical Tenth Province). Many of our newspaper editors are excellent finger-pointers.

Under normal circumstances, our jounalists won't go, for example, to the poverty-stricken Sekhukhune District Municipality in the Limpopo Province unless they are following the Preisdent on an imbizo. Our journalists pretend to be innovative and investigative, but, in reality, they are mostly scandal-mongering, narrow-focussed and just shoddy in their reporting.

I know that the ANC has pronounced itself on the issue of a state-owned newspaper before, saying that they want to leave the space open for independent voices. That's fine when you have media personnel who provide food for thought and see themselves as part of the society they write about. We do not have such media here in South Africa, which is why I believe government must again lead the way, just as it leads journalists into areas of our country they would ordinarily not go to.

We need a state-run newspaper to challenge stereotypes and provide a different, fresh perspective -- a newspaper with learned commentators, a paper that will be written mostly by the doers as opposed to the privately-owned newspapers that are written by the talkers. We need a state-owned newspaper to keep our lazy journalists and their half-baked columnist colleagues on their toes.