Letter from South Africa

Abstract

One Sunday evening, a political correspondent was interviewing a local politician in a regional television studio. An angry rival burst in, abusing the interviewee and brining the programme to a halt, while a heavily-armed mob of his supporters clashed with security personnel at the front door. South Africa is very much the world's favourite nation at present, a paragon of international virtue providing rhetorical fodder from Westminster Abbey to the White House lawn. It has an excellent new constitution containing a Bill of Rights promising freedom of expression, association and information. But these are just words on paper when a minister can terminate a broadcast and have his lame excuse (that he thought the programme was finished) accepted by his cabinet colleagues. The whole episode has been quietly brushed under the carpet in spite of public outrage from the South African Broadcasting Corporation, political parties (all of them except the pro-apartheid Conservative party and, of course, Inkatha) and human rights groups. It would appear that the freedoms, both proactive and protective, launched with great fanfare, in April can be arbitrarily kicked aside by a politician with a grievance. The fact that this is a good old tradition - broadcasters in the apartheid years routinely took orders from Cabinet ministers - says little for democracy in the new South Africa.

Keywords

• south africa
• south african constitution
• bill of rights
• freedom of expression
• freedom of information
• south african broadcasting corporation
• south african conservative party
• inkatha
• human rights
• democracy in south africa