18 December 2007
Mr. Smuts Ngonyama
Head of the Presidency
African National Conference
University of Limpopo
Polokwane

Dear Mr. Ngonyama,

The South African Editors’ Forum (Sanef) wishes to register its strongest protest against the treatment of the media by ANC security personnel at the party’s 52nd National Conference underway in Polokwane, Limpopo. Sanef also deplores the apparent inadequate arrangements made by the ANC to accommodate and facilitate the media’s smooth and effective coverage of this most important political event in South Africa.

It is Sanef’s view that the obviously scant attention given to the effective functioning of the media by the conference organizers is at the root of the boorish behaviour towards the media by particularly certain ANC security personnel. This is evidenced by Sunday’s attempt to exclude media from open sessions, and the rudimentary equipment and other facilities at the media centre, situated so far away from where the source of news is.

Sanef particularly condemns the actions of ANC security personnel on 17 December 2007 in which several journalists and photographers were physically manhandled. In the ensuing scuffles several photographers had their expensive camera equipment – the tools of their trade – unnecessarily damaged.

This morning none other than a cabinet minister attacked two a photographer with his umbrella whilst physically shoving away another. If this is the behaviour of senior ANC leaders it is perhaps no wonder that other members feel empowered to act in the same unacceptable manner.

Sanef wishes to remind the ANC that proper media coverage of this crucial event, the importance of which goes way beyond the ANC and its internal dynamics and strife, should be a priority for the governing party. The conference is of great importance to all South Africans as its outcome will affect their destiny. They rely on the media to inform them properly on the proceedings in Polokwane in an unfettered manner. The conference is also of huge interest to the international community, as is attested by the large contingent of foreign journalists covering the event from Polokwane for audiences abroad.

Images of the media’s exclusion from clearly defined open sessions of the conference as well as that of too many scuffles with rude ANC security personnel do not cover the ANC or the country in any glory. The treatment of the media at the conference goes against the grain of South Africa’s democratic culture which the ANC itself not only fought for, but ensured for it to be entrenched in the Constitution.

Sanef calls on the ANC leadership to urgently intervene and instruct its security personnel to cease and desist from the physical and verbal abuse of journalists. We would value an opportunity to discuss this matter at you as a matter of urgency.