[PLEASE NOTE: This will be the last FoE News from South Africa for 1997. The FXI offices will close on December 24 and reopen on January 5 1998. Thanks, RG]

INTERNET ACCESS - Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu earlier this month launched Schoolnet South Africa - a national body that is expected to introduce the Internet to three million pupils within the next 12 months. The "Sowetan" newspaper reports that Schoolnet SA will comprise of provincial city council representatives and representatives from the arts, education, culture, science and technology fields. According to Minister Bengu, the body will coordinate "school connectivity to the Internet, develop appropriate content for use on the Internet and in support of Curriculum 2005," which is a new educational curriculum being phased into South African schools. Four hundred thousand schools are currently linked to the Internet worldwide.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION - The South African diamond-mining company, Swissbourgh Diamond Mines, says it will appeal against a High Court decision not to grant the company access to government documents relating to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The project is a joint venture between South Africa and Lesotho. The company requires the documentation  to prove its case in a R945-million damage claim for loss of income after its mining rights in the vicinity of the project was invalidated. Swissbourgh claims to have obtained these mining rights in 1988, two years after South Africa and Lesotho signed the treaty to establish the water project. The "Business Day" newspaper reported on December 15 that the High Court had dismissed with costs two applications by Swissbourgh for access to the documentation relating to the treaty. A similar application against the Lesotho Government was dismissed by the Lesotho Chief Justice on December 12. In dismissing Swissbourgh’s application, the High Court in Pretoria upheld an argument by government that the documents were protected by legal, state and international privilege. Following the judgement, the company announced that its South African shareholders would also launch a separate application in the Constitutional Court for access to all documents
in possession of and/or under the control of the South African government, the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority, the Lesotho government, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, the Joint Permanent Technical Commission and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and its financiers.

GOVERNMENT & MEDIA - President Nelson Mandela on December 16 harshly berated the South African media, describing it,  along with several other institutions in the country, as a threat to South Africa’s democratic transformation and development. The attack came in Mandela’s final presidential address to the 50th conference of the African National Congress (ANC). Mandela said:
"We have to confront the fact that during the last three years, the matter has become perfectly clear that the bulk of the mass media in our country has set itself up as a force opposed to the ANC. This media exploits the dominant positions they achieved as a result of the apartheid system, to campaign against both real change and the real agents of change, as represented by our movement. In this context, it also takes advantage of the fact that, thanks to decades of repression and prohibition on mass media genuinely representative of the voice of the majority of the people of South Africa, this majority has no choice but to rely on information and communication on media representing the privileged minority. To protect its own privileged positions, which are a continuation of the apartheid legacy, it does not hesitate to denounce all efforts to ensure transformation, consistent with the objectives of a nonracial democracy, as an attack on press freedom. When it speaks against us, this represents freedom of thought, speech and the press - which the world must applaud. When we exercise our own right to freedom of thought and speech to criticise it for its failings, this represents an attempt to suppress the freedom of the press - for which the world must punish us. Thus the media uses the democratic order, brought about by the enormous sacrifices of our own people, as an instrument to protect the legacy of racism, graphically described by its own patterns of ownership, editorial control, value system and advertiser influence."
Mandela went on to say that the conference would have to consider what measures it would have to take against the media. He concluded: "At the same time we must also reaffirm our commitment to the freedom of the press and demonstrate this in all our practical activities." In other parts of his speech, Mandela also attacked certain non-governmental organisations (NGO), whom he said pretended to represent independent and popular views, but who were funded by some from inside or outside the country to promote their own political agenda within South Africa.
In a follow-up interview on national television on December 18, Mandela defended his attack on the media, saying black newspaper editors in South Africa were mere token appointments.
He said: "As long as newspapers are owned by a white conservative minority those appointments are mere tokens." He added that he believed  the white media was part of a counter-revolutionary force that wanted to shape and control public opinion in line with an "evil" minority view.  Mandela, however, repeated the ANC’s commitment to press freedom and said the government did not intend to regulate the press to bring it into line. In reaction to Mandela’s comments about black editors, the chairman of the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and editor of the "Cape Argus", Moegsien Williams, said Mandela had to explain how he defined tokenism. He said whether his own appointment to the "Argus" had been on the basis of ability, or because he was black, was not for him to say. "But", he added, "my record and those of the other editors speak for themselves." They were fully in charge of their newspapers and staffing procedures, he said. He added that if Mandela’s criticism was generally aimed at helping the media and at pointing out the need for transformation, then "I say he’s right, (but) if this is an attempt to get the media to be more sympathetic to government, then he’s got it wrong. My question is: would have made these comments about transformation if our media was like the Zimbabwean media, almost entirely uncritical of government?" Williams said the approach of SANEF was to engage the government and political organisations in ongoing constructive debate on these issues, to develop a better understanding of the media. The editor-elect of the "Sunday Times", Mike Robertson, further rejected the suggestion that black editors were mere tokens saying, "I think the president would be surprised to know that black editors are a lot less pliable than the thinks they are." The editor of the Sowetan, Mike Siluma, while agreeing that some of Mandela’s accusations against the media were valid, said that debate was the only way to develop better mutual understanding. "Public recrimation will not help. There is a need for a formal and sober meeting, so that some kind of consensus can be reached," he said.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING - The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) came in for strong criticism from some opposition parties in Parliament because of its live television coverage on December 16 of the ANC’s 50th national conference. The National Party (NP) described the coverage as an abuse of taxpayers money, adding that the SABC should say whether the country’s other political party’s would enjoy the same privilege in future. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) described the broadcast as "absolutely shocking and disgusting" and accused the ANC of abusing television to promote itself. PAC MP Patricial de Lille said the party would take up the matter with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. However, the SABC defended the coverage, saying the criticism against it was unfounded. SABC spokesman Enoch Sithole said: "The decision to cover the conference was based on the newsworthiness of the event, and not for reasons other than that as indicated by some media. ...The conference is of national interest as President Mandela addressed the conference for the last time as president of the ANC. This conference could also be making decisions on policy changes which will impact on the country and this, therefore, makes this an event of national interest. The SABC is equally willing and keen to cover any other political party conference with the same news value."

INTERNET ACCESS - The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), representing commercial service providers, has reportedly reaffirmed its opposition to co-operating with the  telecommunications parastatal, Telkom, with regard to Internet traffic flow in the country. ISPA operates "peering points" in Johannesburg and Cape Town so that Internet traffic can travel between local networks. Without this connectivity, traffic must be routed internationally, giving a slower, poorer quality service. However, the "Business Day" newspaper reports in its latest policy document governing Internet traffic flow, ISPA has banned traffic exchange with Telkom’s Internet network, SAIX, or any service provider leasing SAIX bandwidth. This includes Intekom, Telkom’s own Internet arm, and several smaller companies. According to ISPA, Telkom had never been allowed to use ISPA peering points because of its ambition to monopolise Internet access. The association apparently was willing to allow Telkom to join the service as an equal competitor after the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) ruled in October that Telkom could not monopolise Internet access. However, these hopes were dashed when Telkom appealed to the High Court to overturn SATRA’s ruling. The judgement in this case is still pending.

CENSORSHIP - All eight African-language radio stations at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) have banned a track off the latest CD release from artist Mbongeni Ngema because they regard it as "indecent and offensive". The track, "Ubhuti" in Zulu, contains lyrics which admonish a woman for "killing a man with a piece of her ass" (wabulala umuntu ngesibumbu, wabulala umuntu ngesinene). The station manager for Ukhozi FM, which prompted the ban by the other seven stations, conceded that the station had played non-South African songs dealing with sex, but he said Zulu was "too sensitive a language" to use in speaking overtly about sex. Ngema has accused the stations of "neo-apartheid". He told the "Sunday Times" newspaper: "These people are still thinking in the apartheid mode. I find it particularly ridiculous that they are refusing to play my song, whose content pales into significance compared with some of the American songs that they play. ...What are we supposed to deduce from this? That English is superior to our own language?"

ENDS