THICK END OF THE WEDGE
PETER BRUCE: Jessie Duarte’s vile rant at reporter is par for the course in abuse of media
Whenever the ANC’s deputy secretary-general is put in front of a camera she damages its dwindling reputation as a party of tolerant constitutionalists
Jessie Duarte, the ANC’s deputy secretary-general, started off sounding vaguely normal when she began a media conference at party HQ Luthuli House on Tuesday. The party’s list of candidates for the nine provincial legislatures and the National Assembly would be studied, she said, by the party’s integrity commission, which would make recommendations to the national executive committee on whether or not they should be on the list. The integrity commission, Duarte explained, could not change the lists, which have already been submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission of SA. But then she said they could influence the list. Whatever. But Duarte kept dropping little insults about the media. They only focused on three names on the list and were therefore “biased”. An eNCA reporter, Samkele Maseko, took offence when she mentioned eNCA by name, and told her. She kept her cool for a few minutes more (though stupidly tried to get eNCA to switch off its camera) and then turned on him to...
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