MEDIA FREEDOM, DIVERSITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
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The South African law legislated for independent and “self-regulation” on the part of the media. This is indeed a key development, particularly in the interest of a rising threat against press freedom and independence. Sections of the ruling party have come up with proposals to end ‘self-regulation’ on the part of print media arguing that mechanism currently in place are inadequate to hold media accountable and provide for ethically qualitative and professional journalism.
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Ownership of print media is trapped in an oligarchic situation of the domination of few companies - Media24, Caxton; and Avusa. This too is not in the best interest of democratic contestation and diversity of views. All are dominated by the English language and also control a lot of local print publications. They too have demonstrated hostility at revolutionary ideas, and popular narratives of the poor, like reporting the labour strikes in bad light, with general depiction of workers as unreasonable.
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This space remains the heaven of the promotion of white supremacist culture in terms of representations of broad aesthetics and life values, the promotion of capitalist consumerist culture and liberal individualism, as well as marginalisation of narratives of popular classes.
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Media, print in particular, has capacity to conduct public trails of key individuals in society, thus prejudicing them before court processes establish findings. Media is susceptible to manipulation by the wealthy and powerful. However, this is no reason to end ‘self-regulation’. Instead, the Ombudsman and the press council must be strengthened to be accessible to the most vulnerable when they are offended, marginalised and misrepresented.
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The point is to aggressively fight for diversification in terms of ownership, control and language spread. The development and strengthening of community based papers and the promotion of the emergence of “grassroots” oriented media that capitalises doing journalism not on the basis on popular stories for sales, but giving voice to ordinary and poor communities.
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In a democracy, independent media is essential and the EFF must protect this space. Constant robust engagement with it must not be confused with the totalitarian demands of centrally micromanaging the editorial decisions about what gets reported.
NEW MEDIA AND THE RISE OF THE GADGET SOCIETY
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There is no doubt that the key element in the diversification, and at times, democratisation of media is the invention of the mobile phone and tablet in how they facilitate access to interment. Cell phones first break communications barriers in many and different ways, but they give people access to radio and internet; key amongst which is social media.
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Two developments in the communications sector must therefore be monitored as they set up a massive stage and fundamental shift for the battle and flow of ideas; it is broadband penetration and the spread of mobile gadgets; smart cellphones and tablets. This means traditional media which is by and large less diversified may no longer be central to the spread of ideas with the rise and penetration of internet.
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A World Wide Worx Mobile Consumer in South Africa survey noted that cellphone usage in South Africa experienced a dramatic shift between 2012 and 2013, with spending on voice dropping from 73% of mobile budget to 65% and spending on data increasing from 12% to 16%. Due to high cost of computers cell phones are seen as the tool to bridge the digital divide between the rich and the poor.
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The Same survey indicates that mobile phones are the dominant communication technology among low-income users and informal businesses; in 2012, about three quarters of low-income South Africans, in rural and in urban areas, possessed a cell phone.
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According to InfoDev study on the use of mobile phones in South Africa. Although smartphone penetration in South Africa is increasing at a rapid pace, at about 20% a year. As of mid-2013, about 10 million smartphones have been sold in South Africa. That means that only one in five mobile phones in use in South Africa is a smartphone. About 50% of devices used are Nokia. Samsung and BlackBerry both have 18% market share, while the market share of Apple iPhone is about 1%
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This is a key statistic as it provides a sense of where things will be in the next few years. With the spread of gadgets we are looking at more than 50% of the Population having a smart phone with internet access in the next three years. By all conservative estimation, depending on the invention of a cheap smartphone and tablet, the 2019 general elections will be fought on the sky.
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The Broadband Commission, an international body set up by the ITU and UNESCO, released its “The State of Broadband 2013” report and according to the 2013 edition of the UN report, mobile broadband is the fastest growing technology in human history. Mobile broadband subscriptions, which allow users to access the web via smartphones, tablets and WiFi-connected laptops, are growing at a rate of 30% per year. South Africa is performing badly according to this reporting.
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World Wide Worx and Fuseware have identified Facebook as the leading social network site in South Africa, overtaking mixit with close to 10 million accounts. 87 % of Facebook users are doing so on mobile phones and the research shows that it has become the attraction of all age groups, with youth dementing. Mxit: 7.4-million is at active users, Twitter stands at 5.5-million users, 2go: 1.1-million users, Instagram stands with 680 000 active users, Google+ is at 466 828 active users, YouTube has 1.5-million account views each for the top 200 YouTubers and LinkedIn: 2.7-million registered users. WhatsApp identifies SA is one of its top 10 countries. They have more than 300M monthly active users worldwide that send 11 billion messages and receive 20 billion messages per day.
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Of these social media sources, focus needs to be put on mass media social network like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube as key elements in the spread of ideas due to their interactivity. This is despite the importance of all message related networks whose significance remains in the spread of message.
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EFF must occupy social media network aggressively to gain relevance and also influence social discourse. Internet offers alternative means to online broadcasting and publications. EFF radio and television can be pursued online with people accessing it via mobile technology devices.
BATTLE OF IDEAS
The ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling classes – Marx 1845, German Ideology
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The ruling ideology today is the ideology of liberal individualism which makes flourish the system of capitalist exploitation. Liberal individualism in the colony functions with a racial character and can be called liberal racial individualism; this is the idea that there is a self, which creates and sustains itself and is the foundation of all knowledge and truth. This self can think the world into being, any world; all they do is think it and it comes into being.
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Colonial violence however socialises the natives as incapable of such a self-sufficient and autonomous self on the basis that they are black. This makes blacks inadvertently prefer a struggle to attain recognition as self-sufficient autonomous being capable of capitalist enlightenment. The post-colonial nationalist project therefore finds expression in this basic ideology.
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It follows that the foundation for the battle of ideas starts with reimagining existence itself as material; that the structural conditions produce us as beings that must see themselves in this way for their very reproduction and sustenance of the structural conditions. Revolutions must actively seek to dispel liberal racial individualism which stratifies society and services individuals as volunteers of their own servitude in all aspects of ideological strata
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The idea of Economic Justice and Freedom points to a socialist future and a society that decentres the individual not as the centre of existence but as part of many centres. Revolution makes possible for an existence that gives priority to the development of structural conditions for the sustenance of life, all of life including human life as part of life.
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Revolution does this through the socialisation of productive means for a truly free society to exist. As things stand, the post-colonial/apartheid democracy leaves individuals only free to think, speak and associate without the freedom to access of the means to think, speak, associate, and free to movement. To attain such a balance, the property of means of subsistence must be socialised. It must be unpopular to turn water, land, livestock, rivers and all essential means of subsistence into property.
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Revolution therefore seeks to restore and reconcile humanity to the means of subsistence to make their freedom meaningful. In South Africa revolution necessarily means taking key sectors of the economic (key in that majority of life to revolve and majority of the people depend on them) into the collective ownership by the people. It means the nationalisation of land, mines, banks and monopoly industries for equal redistribution.
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The path to make this program popular is the task of EFF media and communications which must necessarily come up against the liberal racial individualism in all is forms, in religion, culture, art, education, etc.
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Fighters must be armed with revolutionary consciousness to take advantage of the basic freedoms of media, expression and access to information to spread the ideas of economic freedom in our lifetime knowing character of the ruling ideology
DEVELOPING EFF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS APPROACH
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EFF’s commitment to democracy must be demonstrated in its critical support of media freedom, particularly against tide of state propaganda department and capture by the ruling elite. EFF must be uncompromising in its further exposition of the capitalist interests that find priority and prominence above and against popular classes and the poor
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EFF must contest all spaces without leaving any unchallenged; liberal racial individualism will dilute and at most prevent a socialist transformation of economic activity for the free society to emerge. Thus, in religious, art, entertainment, education, media and family spaces; the gospel of economic freedom must be preached with no corner left unchecked.
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EFF Battle of Ideas in Traditional Media must continue with open engagement with the media and journalism community through statements, opinion pieces, analysis, and examination of popular subjects. EFF must challenge and raise debates as a power itself.
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The commitment to democracy must particularly find expression in the democratisation and diversification of all of media in terms of languages, ownership and control. Through MDDA, government must be pressured to develop alternative media in broadcasting, print and internet to ensure universal access.
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Ward structures of the EFF must target all mediums of publications to gain the ear of the ordinary and win them over to the revolution in religious, art, entertainment and other circles. Each Ward Command Team must develop a program of battle of ideas on how to target local radio, print, and other platforms to popularise the ideas of economic freedom. There must be no day that passes without EFF at all levels expressing itself on issues, providing critique, direction or guidance to society.
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There must be usage of traditional means of spreading ideas: newsletter, sms, even taking platforms on the street corners and market areas to give short open addresses on the ideas of the EFF or challenges facing the community
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There must be a Multimedia capacity that uses photographic, video and voice recording facilities to generate publications and the spread of EFF ideas. Internet which provides new media platforms must be aggressively used to generate autonomous alternative EFF platforms outside the mainstream; online radio, youtube and live streaming capacity
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There must be an establishment of a weekly publication whose immediate goal is provision of commentary on current affairs to provide guidance and ideological tools to engage developments. There must be a quarterly journal that aims at substantial publications on the development of policy and ideological tools of analysis.
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EFF media must generate feeds from the grassroots to give voice to struggles on the ground, not just in written form, but other recordings; photography, video and voice files. The people on the ground must be able to find platform on EFF to tell their stories, struggles and generate more circulation of the revolutionary ideas of economic freedom, with a focus on internet sources
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An active communication of all EFF is involved in, from parliament and legislatures to international work will help with content further circulation of ideas internally and outside.
CONCLUSION
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The National People’s Assembly must pronounce on the political appropriation of the public broadcaster and mobilise further on a more equitable and balanced reporting at the SABC
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Further call on the strengthening of self-regulatory capacity of print media, particularly speedily response and resolution of disputes.
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ICASA must be elevated as a Chapter Nine institution. EFF must put it to parliament for legislation to be reviews in the interest of such an elevation and cogent mandate on the part of ICASA. In addition, time allocation must be included to have a cogent definition of equitable distribution with the exclusion of number of seats an already existing party has in parliament. Other criterion can work; number of provinces being contested, if the party is contesting national elections, as well as number of candidates being fielded for elections. These must be done before the next local government elections
CHAPTER
10
Arts, Culture and Economic Emancipation in our lifetime
A critical look at Arts and Culture and Economic Emancipation in our lifetime
Introduction
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The History
The extent to which a people are emancipated; be it political, social or economic is intrinsically linked to their freedom of expression or lack thereof. Throughout history, oppressed nations have been oppressed precisely because of their inability to practice free speech, practice their beliefs and contribute meaningfully to the make-up of their socio-political life. Inevitably, in politically and economically oppressive societies, the key tool in sustaining the status quo translates to the oppression of self-expression. Free and undeterred self-expression is often directly a catalyst for a confident nation, one that is self-critical and therefore growth-prone. Hence Frantz Fanon determines that in oppressive societies, the culture or self-expression of the oppressed is a ‘contested culture’. The oppressor seeks to not only annex the economic and labor activities of his subjects, but also their ability to express and critique themselves in a manner that is congruous with their sensibilities.
Oppression of culture in a neo-liberal post-colonial setting is therefore a very complex issue. Not only because it is often enforced by a new elite who still hold the bragging rights for championing the liberation struggle, but also because it is less conspicuous, more hidden and inexorably more dangerous. In an animal-farm type setting, the rationale for the oppression is easily explained away as part and parcel of the ‘continuous struggle against oppression’. The subject, the newly-oppressed, in belief and trust of the leadership they see as synonymous with their own liberation, takes time to suspect the oppression. Hence often societies in a post-colonial setting, while in inertia of celebrating their perceived liberation, take time to unravel that their ability to critique the state of their new oppressors is but compromised. But Fanon correctly determines that this condition of society is not perpetually obsolete; that in time the setting self-corrects. He argues that the consciousness of the oppressed, awakening to the ‘clandestine’ nature of their oppressed culture, begin to rebel. They begin to seek an equal platform for their self-expression. This stage will be discussed in another paper.
This document seeks to examine how our policy in the Economic Freedom Fighters can assist that self-correct machinery in order to refocus the mindset of our people to that of a nation ready to take back the ownership of their societal-psychology, their labour and their economy. This it will seek to achieve by critically examining the sector of Arts, Culture and Sport; the catalyst sector of self-expression and self-determination.
It will look at the status quo and how it affects the sector in moving the nation towards independent thinking and in propelling itself into an economically thriving machinery capable of absorbing wholesale labour, a critical agenda in a post-apartheid South Africa.
But perhaps by way of explanation, it is important to note that even though the document speaks to both sectors of Arts and Sports, the EFF firmly believes that while there are commonalities in how they affect society, they must technically be seen as separate cabinet sects.
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The Status-Quo
The struggle for liberation in South Africa has travelled hand-in-glove with movements in the arts and culture sector. In a struggle in which the mindset and participation of the largess has been a critical ingredient, the arts became an easily logical medium to amass support for the liberation movement. Artists became the mouthpiece of the liberation struggle and in many ways, the catalysts of activism. As the struggle progressed, the arts moved along and mutated in tandem to find new and creative ways of propelling that struggle both within the confines of our border and beyond. The emergence of music forms and dance cultures like Kwela, Marabi, Cothoza Mfana, Mbube, Isicathamiya, The Sax Jive and many others were a direct result of the political ambience of their times. Socially critical artists of the time, the likes of Joseph Makwela, Aaron Jack Lerole, Michael Xaba, Marks Mankwane and later editions like Hugh Masekela, Mahlathini, Mirriam Makeba and Abdullah Ibrahim became the mouthpiece of a brewing struggle against apartheid and some continued to be so well into the 80s and 90’s. Sports also took a stance as an expression for the people’s will to see a society in which people can participate free of discrimination and intimidation in all cultural and sporting life of their birth-country.
The several bannings of South Africa in different international sporting codes respectively in 1957, 1964 and 1977 were part of this movement. Protest theatre then took over in the 80s as a platform of the liberation struggle. Plays like Township Boy, Sophiatown and Woza Albert became the icons of the struggle of the time. Names like, Gibson Kente, Maishe Maponya, Percy Mtwa and Winston Ntshona became synonymous with a cultural movement that seeked to critique our socio-politics. These are all people and movements that have helped shape the country moving into the socio-political agenda of a negotiated post-1994 South Africa. Many of the names mentioned above still reign supreme in their respective cultural and sporting codes.
It is in this post-94 era that the Fanonian/Animal Farm post-liberation phenomenon found foothold and politics relinquished its partnership with Arts and Culture. As the politics began to shift from left to centre and from center to right-wing, so did the cultural and sporting life of our country. The correct analysis is that the liberation movement increasingly found itself faced with balancing finances and what they called ‘critical election deliverables’. Infrastructure, sanitation, schools, healthcare centres and roads fell squarely within this description as sports, arts and culture slowly fell to the periphery. It did not help that the sector found it difficult to organize and professionalize itself early enough to stabilize in tandem with other sectors.
The liberation movement began to see especially arts and culture as non-essential and it rapidly became a nuisance department to which they relegated ministers they knew not what to do with. The department of Arts and Culture has deteriorated since into an arts desk solely responsible for events, and because its stewards are usually of the mindset that Arts and Culture is non-essential, activities of the Department have been populated with non-core business such renaming of streets and building libraries, activities which really belong to the Spatial Planning sector with Arts and Culture in an advisary and consultative role. Arts and Culture is not regulated properly, not professionalized and its largest cake is still in the hands of the white minority 20yrs post 1994. But its biggest challenge is that it has become a socially dormant sector whose political role is to endorse and rubber-stamp the policies and wishes of the ruling party.
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What is to be done : Broad Policy recommendations
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Who owns Culture and Sports
The revolutionary movement cannot lose its class perspective in its analysis of socio-political currents prevailing in the country. To do so would deprive stratagems of critical tools of analysis, tools by which all liberations are rooted and equipped to propel the lives of ordinary people for which they fight. And this is our point of departure in critically analyzing the status quo of sports, arts and culture in South Africa.
The debates about what art and culture should be are still as relevant as in György Lukács’ analysis of Marxist Aesthetics in which he contends that socialist realism is the most relevant form of cultural and literary expression in a revolutionary agenda. If we assert that the revolutionary agenda in South Africa is not complete, then this, in line and coupled with Fanon’s own insertion that culture in an oppressive society is inherently controlled by the dominant class, presents the country’s arts and culture with an interesting problem which is perhaps best expressed by Ngugi wa Thiong’o:
“Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow [...] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes”
The new elite, the ‘dominant class’ in the form of the former liberation movement, assimilating their former masters, have fashioned in defence of their policies and lifestyle, a new arts and sports sector molded around the neoliberal ‘celebritist’ culture.
This sector exalts and elevates a few conformists, encourages rhetoric in praise of the status quo and is often centralized for control purposes. This sector revolves around a few institutions, which are often controlled by the new elite and their monopoly capital masters. It advocates a work ethic that says: Stick with us, and you will be alright. Much like their internal politics, it sidelines and banishes those who question and criticize. It survives on scare tactics and punishing dissent.
And so the survivalist artist and sportsman in this new regime is a fearful conformist. While their work is often only appreciated when the new elite need them to endorse their lifestyles, the artist remains without work, but loyalist nonetheless. The means to create the work for artists remains in the hands of government and white monopoly capital. It is dispensed in exchange for loyalty. And herein lies the answer to the question: What is to be done?
The sectors must be decentralized and put back in the hands of the people. It must be encouraged to grow into a self-sustaining and job creating sector that can absorb the job market. And it must do what art and culture do, critique society and act as a mirror without fear or favor. Practical steps are as follows
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