Private Thoughts

State of the Nation Address by His Excellency JG Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, Joint Sitting of Parliament, Cape Town

3 June 2009

Honourable Speaker; Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces; Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP; Deputy President of the Republic, Kgalema Motlanthe Former President of the Republic, Thabo Mbeki, Our icon, the First President of a democratic South Africa, Isithwalandwe Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Former Deputy Presidents, Distinguished Premiers and Speakers of our Provinces; Esteemed members of the Judiciary; Chairperson of SALGA, mayors and leaders in our system of local government; Chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders and our honoured traditional leaders; Heads of Chapter 9 Institutions; Governor of the Reserve Bank, Religious leaders, Directors-General and other leaders of the public service; President of the Pan African Parliament, Honourable Idriss Endele Moussa, Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners; Distinguished guests, comrades and friends; Fellow South Africans,
Dumelang, Abusheni, Molweni,

I was looking up the nominations for "The New 7 Wonders of Nature" over at New7Wonders when I came across a contestant site from Nigeria in the Mountains Category.

What caught my attention was the Name of the site from Nigeria ... Get ready it's called the "Zuma Rock " .

Call me curious, but is the Democaratic Alliance out to win the 2009 South African General Elections or are they aiming at just securing a position as the official/largest opposition Party ?

What brings me to this question ? I have noticed that the DA is most active in the Western Cape and their biggest reach has been in the media ( Print and Web Based ) mostly around the Jacob Zuma saga.

If the DA is aiming at winning the elections, can they achieve this by reaching out to the mostly the Western Cape and the Internet User ? I mean they have taken out web based ads too.   Here in the Free State ( especially Bloemfontein ) the DA has been AWOL as far as visibility and active campaigning is concerned.

My friends in high places ( very high ) who are well placed in these circles (ANC/DA) dropped of a few notes over the weekend regarding a real possibility of an alliance between these two parties that are very very very afraid of loosing the Western Cape . Seems like COPE is being taken as a serious threat.

It does not come as a shock and something like this is expected. I have a lot of other juicy news regarding the elections backstage but this is keeping me busy. I have made many enquiries, officially and unofficially and have "my people" on the job.

So Schabir Sheik gets released and the media gang kicks into top gear about "huge public outcries" from political parties.Some  Journalists goe into a type of feeding frenzy with the story and riding on the back of that, are the ANC's opposition party spokespersons.

Be objective, you need to sit back and do some research, realise that this was expected for more than 18 months. Shaik's family has been lobbying for his release for that long on medical grounds. It not going to serve any purpose to call for a Commission of Enquiry to investigate ( or are you having a go at Job creation ?), as the outcome would be certain and the general S A public cannot wait out the 2 years it would take for this commission to be finalised.

I elected to wait out Monday (yesterday) before commenting on this frontpage story that made the Sunday Times frontpage. This was so I could have a good knowledge of the reaction that came from various media and organisational bodies, after all it is high election time in South Africa.

The article in question carried the headline, "ANC risked Madiba's health by parading him at Zuma rally" and also a highlighted quote from a 'family friend' that went like this, "Shame, the old man does'nt deserve this kind of nonsense".

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I have been an avid reader of the print media for many many years. To put it simply, not a day goes by for me without me reading at least 4 daily newspapers. The media is a very powerful machine and has a big influence on the way readers perceive events/incidents/current issues that are reported by them ( Media ), so much so that some of us may totally believe views that have been reported in the media with out questioning motives behind the articles.

 Is the media 100% unbiased ?  Are there elements in the media houses that make use of the media to further certain aims and change the readers perceptions on certain issues ?  Are the "spin doctors" of certain organisations so influential that they can so easily influence the way news is reported by journalists ?

Join me as I focus on issues related to the coverage of South Africas General Election, 2009.