Sowetan columnist sacked

The following article was published online by IOL News:

Actor, writer and filmmaker Eric Miyeni has defended a controversial column in the Sowetan newspaper in which he suggested City Press editor Ferial Haffajee – whose newspaper investigated the finances of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema – would have been necklaced for her efforts in a previous era.

Miyeni was fired on Monday for writing the offending column.

He suggested the veteran journalist had been “deployed by white capitalists to sow discord among blacks”, that she harboured an “utter hatred of ANC politicians” and that in the 1980s she would “probably have had a burning tyre around her neck”.

The comment was a reference to the gruesome fate sometimes meted out to those suspected of colluding with the apartheid regime.

Sowetan acting editor Len Maseko on Monday yanked the column with immediate effect, saying Miyeni had “crossed the line between robust debate and the condonation of violence”.

“Avusa Media (which publishes Sowetan) and the Sowetan newspaper are committed to free, fair and robust debate. Miyeni expresses robust views shared by many South Africans. However, the expression of these views should not be accompanied by the promotion or condonation of violence against those who hold differing views,” he said.

The ANC Youth League leaped to Miyeni’s defence last night, saying it “agrees” with the sentiments he expressed in his column.

“We particularly applaud that Miyeni says things as they are and exposes the ill practices of the journalist he wrote about. Miyeni should never be intimidated, nor demoralised by media commentators and mobs of reactionary media, because they will try to rubbish his thoughts,” it said.

“He should continue to be an honest, fearless activist who speaks his mind and not fall into the trap of those who blindly support the interests of apartheid beneficiaries. The (league) appreciates that ultimately, someone had the courage to tell some journalist where to get off,” it said.

After the news filtered through to Luthuli House that Miyeni had been fired, the league issued a new statement, this time condemning the newspaper for bowing to “right-wing elements who determine the direction of the Sowetan”.

“If the Sowetan found the column by Miyeni inappropriate, why did they publish it? Why is it that when leaders of the ANC are questioned by anti-ANC, racist, and narrow analysts, the Sowetan does not terminate their columns?

“The ANC Youth League will soon seek a meeting with those who terminated the column to get an explanation on their application of principles, because they are out of line and abominable,” said league spokesman Floyd Shivambu.

Interviewed by etv’s Jeremy Maggs last night, Miyeni defended his column, saying his use of the necklacing “metaphor” was “not a call for violence against anybody”.

He also took aim at his former employer, noting that he had supplied the column last Thursday and that its editors had had three days to consider the column before it appeared on Monday headlined: “Haffajee does it for white masters”.

“The very same employer published it. Only after the fact, they fired me,” he said.

He stood his ground on claims that City Press had “manufactured” stories about Malema, that there was no such thing as independence in South African newspapers and that readers should not “assume newspapers are correct”.

“As a country we need to look behind the facts. They (City Press) have a mystery businessman. For me, this is hearsay,” he said in reference to reports that a businessman had told the paper he deposited R200 000 in Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust in exchange for the politician’s help in securing government tenders.

“And let’s say Malema does have a family trust funded by black business people and that (they) made their fortune through government tenders, what the hell is wrong with all that?” Miyeni asked in his column. Miyeni also labelled Haffajee a “black snake in the grass” doing the bidding of so-called white capitalists, but last night described her as a “fantastic human being”.

Haffajee said she was planning to sue Miyeni for his “racism, misogyny and hate speech”.

“If we don’t deal with (it) we go down a slippery slope. We have to stand up against this.” – Political Bureau

Source: IOL News