The house ‘n****r’ and community journalism

Bela-Bela Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) co-ordinator, Sello Moswoeu, has given The BEAT and our sister newspaper, Die Pos/The Post, a clean bill of health against the backdrop of the party’s president, Julius Malema, accusing “some” journalists of being “house n****rs”.

A ‘house nigger’ or Uncle Tom, is a derogatory Deep South American reference targeted at a slave of African origin who looked down upon fellow farmworkers, because he or she worked in the master’s house, either as a gardener or domestic helper.

Asked if he sensed any “Uncle Tom” attitude from editors and reporters at The BEAT and/or Die Pos/The Post, Moswoeu said he had no problems at all with the two newspapers.

He said as far as he was concerned, both newspapers always published ‘a true reflection’ of what the EFF stood for, in terms of the land question and otherwise.

Malema has been condemned all-round after insinuating ‘some’ Indians who he said were allegedly racist.

In a follow-up speech in the KwaZulu-Natal capital of Durban earlier in the week, the EFF self-styled Commander-in-Chief lashed out at the Fourth Estate (media).

He charged that, among others, ‘some’ black journalists were ‘house niggers’.

In his reaction, The BEAT editor, Johnny Masilela, said he had been following the Melma narrative from the time he was president of the militant Congress of South African Students.

‘At the time he spearheaded a protest march in central Johannesburg, with his followers looting stuff from the most vulnerable such as old ladies selling maize cobs,’ he explained.

Masilela said at the time he had given Malema the benefit of the doubt as a school going youngster.

“Then later as president of the ANC Youth League, Malema started lashing out at the media, such as the BBC incident which led to his expulsion from the ANC,” Masilela said.

‘My humble advice is that whipping up racial tensions shall not help the EFF electioneering cause in anyway. Political leadership is about the battle of ideas, not insults,’ he added.

The BEAT intern-in-residence, Kego Matju (21), said she disagreed with Malema’s statement, “because as a student journalist I believe I am not answerable to any master, but the editor and my senior colleagues.”

The BEAT reporter Mzamane Ringane said as a not-so-young person, statements such as attacks on the media would not nudge him into voting for this or other party.

‘For me it is about the clear articulation of policies,’ he said.

The BEAT’s Lizzy Bapela said she had always had healthy relations with political parties across the spectrum, “among these the EFF.”

Reporter-cum-deejay, TK Mashaba, said politicians across the spectrum should not take themselves too seriously, because on the club circuit young people did not discuss politics, but music.

‘‘So far they my contemporaries are all satisfied by the kind of coverage The BEAT affords the entertainment circuit,’’ he added.

— The BEAT