** High Priority **
CWU’S RESPONSE TO THE THREATS TO JOURNALISTS BY THE ANCYL 19 March 2010 The Communication Workers Union (CWU) notes with serious concern the allegations leveled against the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) Spokesperson Cde Floyd Shivambu by various political journalists from various media houses. We wish to condemn with contempt the spurious actions of the ANCYL Spokesperson. Cde Floyd’s conduct and actions feed into the Youth League’s agenda of bullying and intimidating those who hold a different view to their populist, African chauvinist and Kebbleist agenda, which they are failing to entrench in our broad movement led by the African National Congress (ANC). This counter revolutionary maneuver and action needs to be dealt with by the ANC leadership in defense of our journalists and media houses from this cabal in the ANCYL which is obsessed with bling and insults camouflaged as advancing a revolutionary agenda on behalf of the masses of our people, especially the working class and the poor. The ANC YL is not a place to launch complaints by whistleblowers. Whistleblowers must go to the relevant authorities including the police to launch their complaints. The ANC YL cannot play that role. We want to challenge Cde Floyd like he said earlier that they will on Tuesday open a case against the said journalist. Where is the case? As a revolutionary organ that represents the interests of media workers, including journalists we are interested to know how the private information of journalists was obtained by the ANCYL. Did the ANCYL use their usual bullying tactics to obtain such information from state organs that are charged with that responsibility? For whose class interest was the information garnered for? Why is such information in the hands of the ANCYL? Thus the actions of the ANCYL not feeding to the defeated old apartheid regime agenda wherein media houses and journalist were bullied and silenced for their opposition to the heinous system of Apartheid? What we find disgusting is the unprofessional manner in which journalists are being bullied to run stories that seek to destroy the integrity of individuals within and outside of our movement. These kinds of ‘leaks’ and ‘bullying’ have crippled our newsrooms and deprived society, especially the working class and the poor, of fair and balanced reporting. We are firmly of the view that the conduct of Cde Floyd is a ghost resurrection of Hitler’s Nazi Germany propagandist Josef Goebels. Given this, the CWU, calls on the ANC to take drastic action against Cde Shivambu. Failure by the ANC collective to adhere to such a call will be betraying the sacrifices made by Ruth First and countless other progressive journalists from our ranks and broader society. Journalists cannot be bullied or be threatened to run stories that are divisive and have no contribution on the momentous tasks and challenges facing our country. The pre-Polokwane days taught our movement – the ANC – a painful lesson. Media houses were bullied to advance the interests of the 1996 class project by destroying our movement leaders through the organs of class rule – the media. As CWU, we will seek an audience with the affected journalists as part of developing a coherent programme of solidarity and defense. Contact: Matankana Mothapo Communication Workers Union National Spokesperson – 082 759 0900 Thembinkosi Josopu Student Admissions & Advocacy Services University of Cape Town Level 3, Kramer Law building Middle Campus Rondebosch,7700 Tel :021-650-2429 Fax:021-650-4014 "A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position" ______________________________________________________________________________________________ UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 4500. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . To unsubscribe from this group, send email to yclsa-eom-forum+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
