Déjà vu today and yesterday

Last month the Orwellian 1984-style stand-off between the ANC and First National Bank (FNB) was most telling.  Let me start off by saying that FNB should be congratulated for having the guts to have produced a number of television adverts where young South Africans expressed themselves freely. They spoke about their vision of South Africa, education, crime, corruption and even the death penalty. They were expressing what millions of other South Africans echo.  At no stage was a particular party named or referred to.

Immediately the ANC freaked out. They were visibly threatened. ANC spokesperson, Keith Khoza described the bank’s commercials as an “attack on the president, his ministers and the government as a whole.” Ironically, these commercials called on South Africans to unite for a better future.

It was obvious to me that the ANC objections were reminiscent of the apartheid government’s approach to any dissent. The apartheid government of old consistently labelled a different opinion to theirs as “treasonous.”  This is exactly how the ANC reacted. They even used exactly the same language and wording.

Instead of taking note and acting on what the school children were saying in the FNB adverts, the ANC lamented at the use by FNB of children in their marketing.  In 1976, the government of the day also didn’t listen to the voices of children. Look where it got them.

Space precludes me from getting into the now-famous “secrecy bill.” It has become the symbol of what the ANC government wants to do when it comes to information, access to it and the management thereof. The parallels between what we’re seeing today and what happened in the dark days of the National Party (NP) are not only striking, but scary too.

During the terrible NP days, the then Minister of Information, Connie Mulder had to answer some particularly probing and embarrassing questions posed by the opposition about the funding by government of a new newspaper at the time. The Citizen “infogate” eventually created such a scandal and embarrassed for the then Prime-Minister BJ Vorster that he was eventually forced to resign.  I can’t help getting a feeling of déjà vu when I read about how The New Age is being funded and its cosy relationship with the government.

Just like the days of old, as the governments’ arrogance grows so does it’s paranoia. It wants to control the electronic media, print media and even what companies, such as FNB say. For example, it’s a fact that the SABC is the ANC’s very own de facto television service.

At the closing of the ANC’s conference in Manguang in December, Blade Nzimandle said in the usual paranoid tone that there was a “creeping counter–revolutionary threat to the deepening and consolidating of our democracy.”

This language should serve as a warning to us, just as they served as a warning in the old days, such language displays paranoia. There is nothing more dangerous for its citizens than when their government is one that is paranoid.  It is our duty to be vigilant as attempts by government to totally control information will lead it to become a danger to its citizens, just as it was in the past.