Corruption

Yesterday’s City Press showed that it is still saddled with many of its usual problems. Yet it took the top prizes. One of the problems is that it is so stingy with its Internet coverage that some of the best material has to be manually copy-typed - for example, the following excerpt from the Siyahleba column: “The wealth in poverty “Poverty is indeed a priceless asset for power mongers. Mazibuko Jara, the former outspoken spokesperson of the SACP, has come out of his political hibernation – re-surfacing for the forthcoming congress of the Young Communist League as the champion of the poor people in Imizamo-yethu informal settlement outside Cape Town. He is not alone. There are many campaigns that are being waged on behalf of the poor. But there is one common thread to them – an ambition to be a leader.” But yesterday's outstanding City Press article is the first one below. It has been given a different title by the Communist University because the headline is so much at odds with what the journalists wrote. This article exposes the machinations of the Scorpions wide open for the whole world to see. The most revealing parts are only in the hard copy edition. Perhaps the version on the Internet is less a matter of stinginess and more a question of second thoughts. Paul O’Sullivan burst into tears at his press conference. This man is a British MI6 operative. He has been utterly exposed - read the second article below (and take it together with the first one). Full marks to Jackie Mapiloko and Makhudu Sefara for these two articles, even if the the “suicide pact” explanation they give of the Brett Kebble murder is hard to swallow, to say the least. The City Press also had new revelations about the case of Billy Masetlha – see below. Then there is the report of a lunatic move by Swaziland to claim land from South Africa. Such claims can be exploited by imperialists. See the linked article. The last of the articles relates to the COSATU CEC meeting starting today. The City Press unfortunately could not restrain itself from going back to its old divisive, interfering ways, even though it has direct quotes from the COSATU GS, Zwelinzima Vavi. S’thembiso Msomi has done this before. He gets the quotes but writes the story opposite to what the open information says, claiming support from concealed “sources”. That is not journalism. It is deception, perpetrated first and foremost against the reader. Finally, here is an excerpt from the statement of the Young Communist League following its National Committee meeting this weekend: “On Corruption “Lifestyle and consumerism culture which is a product of the capitalist society breeds corruption. It is our considered view that corruption in a capitalist society is an inevitable reality. We are going to engage much more on the contextualization of corruption in a bourgeois society like ours and locate it where it belongs, and our engagement with corruption would be guided by the reality that it cannot be separated from the fight against capitalism.” Click on these links: ANC NEC supports Jackie Selebi, Mapiloko and Sefara, City Press (1509 words) Why I had to expose Selebi, Mapiloko and Sefara, City Press (707 words) Masetlha subpoenas Mbeki and Kasrils, Sonia Molema, City Press (434 words) Swaziland to go to World Court for SA land, Sithole, City Press (615 words) We are not stupid - Vavi, Sthembiso Msomi, City Press (525 words)