Opinion
Sam Sole and Adriaan Basson are No Media Gurus but agents deployed to destroy Black Progress that’s why I propose Generally Accepted Reporting Universal Principles in order that such loose cannons of journalism such as Adriaan Basson and “Sam” Sole be hemmed in by a code of ethics the public can measure them by.
Some basic rules for journalists is e.g. “Do not suppress relevant available facts, or give distorting emphasis. Do your utmost to give a fair opportunity for reply” When I read this it is sad to see that News24 and “Sam” Sole pay lipservice to these guidelines, why would they if it is going to stand in the way of their not so hidden agendas. “Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Journalists should: Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.” What these guys are doing is to use their great arsenal of writing skills to employ words in such a fashion as to pull the wool over the readers’ eyes like a sleight of hand from a magician, they will emphasize an outrageous event which everyone is relatively aware of and then use their deviousness to give it a twist to suit their nefarious and parochial agenda.
When medical doctors graduate they pledge inter alia :
I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality,
race, party, politics or social standing to intervene between
my duty and my patient;
I will maintain the utmost respect for human life, from
the time of conception; even under threat, I will not use my
medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity
These rules adapted for the media industry must be made mandatory in a pledge for journalists when they are graduating. No longer can our society just take any dick tom and harry as a journalist, I still yearn for the great Hennie Serfontein a true patriot who fearless exposed the truth an educated man who was a qualified lawyer.
On the AmaBhungane website claims are made about transparency and accountability, but what transparency and accountability does a journalist have if he hides behind a fake name? Why ” Sam” Sole unless you have something to hide. Also a consistent theme running throughout every “Sam” Sole article is the egregious attack on black leaders, I am no fan of Jacob Zuma but I respect him as a leader , a man who have sacrificed so much, a man who put his life at risk so we can be free today , so that “Sam” Sole has the right of freedom of expression. “Sam” Sole must know with every right comes a responsibility and he needs to understand you cannot undermine a leader on such fickle grounds and breakdown his dignity because you have a political agenda. Off course “Sam” Sole claims he is fighting for democracy and human rights just like he was fighting for it in a SADF uniform behind the barrel of a gun during a time when soldiers were indemnified against any killings taking place indiscriminately, today we know thousands of youth were killed during the time “Sam” Sole was on patrol, every soldier killed accept “Sam” Sole.
Yeah right!!.In the seventies one of the French Resistance fighters were caught for smuggling and was brought before the court, when the judge realised in front of him was one of the most famous French Resistance fighters he expressed his appreciation of the man and let him go. This is the type of respect shown to those who have sacrificed for a higher cause of which “Sam” looking at the medical oath clearly if it was adapted for journalists “Sam” Sole would be failing miserably as he shows no respect for human life because that life is manifested as a person and he shows no dignity in that respect. He also fails miserably in terms of the above medical oath should it be adapted for journalists as he has shown scant respect for the laws of humanity in terms of respecting the dignity of beloved and respected community leaders.
He relishes undermining any black leader and it is so more disconcerting that a writer of the note of Rob Rose would want to associate with such a group of people. “Sam” Sole and Adriaan Basson is renowned for undermining successful black business achievers all under the banner of “fighting corruption” But if you look at the big picture the story clearly unfolds of two persons who are disseminating dissension and discord in society. What “Sam” Sole is doing is especially egregious as what he is doing is the thin edge of the wedge. In Rwanda the Tutsis also started of very “innocently” first using perjorative terms such as crooks against Hutu’s, then it escalated to cockroaches and we know where it ended. We live in a society where in the black culture you need to respect the dignity of our leaders.
Zuma is a father, a husband, a freedom fighter, MK leader , a grandfather etc. He has achieved so much in his life for which he is highly respected. Like any man he has made mistakes , like any man he has his faults, like any man he has said things he regrets now, like any man he has done things he wish he never did and out of respect nobody would touch upon those human frailties but yet “Sam” Sole arrogates to himself the right to undermine the dignity of Zuma portraying him as some bumbling idiot not deserving of any respect. “Sam” Sole as an active and enthusiastic SADF functionary can no longer call blacks the K word as they did on the Casspirs or on the Buffels, or call black people stupid like they used to do in the SADF but he and a group of “ex -Apartheid” defenders is using the freedom of the press that Zuma fought for to undermine blacks they do it in such a manner that break all the codes of conduct to prevent exactly that happening. As I have said what he is doing is the thin edge of the wedge and surely as I have said what you reap you shall sow , if you saw the wind you will surely reap the whirlwind says the bible.
Our youth who can be fickle at times can easily be guided if there are strong black leaders, but if you undermine the dignity of our black leaders for whom will the youth listen to? After “Sam” Sole has been through our list of black leaders youth will think there is only black crooks and I hope the day does not come to put to the test my fears. What Adriaan Basson and “Sam” Sole is doing is Displacement Journalism where they displace their true feelngs of blacks with more acceptable words but achieves the same result , the result of a total lack of respect in the youth for the dignity of our black leaders. By the time the riots start “Sam” Sole would be on the way to England with his British passport.
Where is his loyalty to this country? Does he feel that his country no longer exists ? The country of Apartheid where an average middle class family could have a gardener , ad river and two maids and a nanny and in some cases a nightwatch? Is this the reason why he is so vitriolic in his reporting to all things positive in black achievement? One day journalism students will study two articles from the time of ‘Sam” Sole , one appearing in a ordinary newspaper and one written by “Sam” Sole , then they will learn how NOT TO write an article because it would be ful of vitriol and undermining black dignity.
There must be universal principles serving as a an objective measuring stick against journalistic conduct can be measured which should be publisised broadly so that members of the public can be aware of it. Those with a tainted past as protectors of Apartheid such as Adriaan Basson and the equally nauseating “Sam” Sole should be monitored closely for their bigotry in trying to incite the youth of this country albeit in a very sophisticated and underhand manner.
No longer can they call blacks stupid, lazy and crooked as they were wont under Apartheid, so they resort to doing it under the guise of fighitng corruption and fertilizing democracy. These people were actively involved in protecting Apartheid how dare they repesent MSM and how dare they speak about democracy.
When a source tell you it is dry outside and another tell you it is wet outside, the devious thing to do is to quote both but a true ethical journalist will look outside to determine the truth. For too long we have too many journalists too lazy to verify their facts because it is expedient to them to just quote both. Another bad thing unethical journalists do is to quote out of context once again to achieve some personal agenda. Their duty as so called defenders of democracy is to give factual information to the public and not pursue a polticiaL agenda.
The reading public is so overwhelmed with information on a daily basis that it is nearly impossible to make heads or tails of the information to make an vulue judgements as to what these information overload entails in real terms.
What is true however is that our reading public is not so stupid as not be able to identify manipulation of information that occurs. When journalists manipulation information to the public the agenda is clearly to manipulate the public in order to sway them in a certain direction which serves the purposes of some hidden hands behind the scenes. Giving manipulated information e.g. taking things out of context is nothing but subtle bullying of the reading public, which can be likened to a form of abuse whether emotional or intellectual.
A popular technique or should I say tactic is for people like “Sam” Sole and Adriaan Basson to employ the creation of false narratives in order to make the targetted reading public question their own perceptions of conditions on the ground. E.g. the constant harping on black corruption is clearly intended to make black movers and shakers in society start to doubt their own judgements about BEE and other empowerment policies of the ANC dominated government. The aim here is to spread dissention and discord in public. When this is the aim of journalists they unleash the whirlwind into which innocent people will get caught up because people like “Sam” Sole has or qualifies for British passports so their loyalty is never with the black majority in this country. Fullstop.
It is too sad to contemplate that we have in our midst a compliment of journalists serving the nefarious interests of a group of peole whose aim is to make Black South Africans doubt the good intentions of the democratically elected government and promise them that only by getting rid of the ANC dominated government will their lives begin to get better, the reality is that the articles which “Sam” Sole disseminates only serve the parochial interests of a few powerful men of the monied classes, people are only sold the illusion of a better life under a new regime.
One of the most disengenous things media houses like News24 and AmaBhungane does is to blame the government for the loadshedding crises when “Sam” Sole knows that the electricity infrastructure under Apartheid was build for whites only, he knows only too well that 99% of blacks did not have access to electricity. He knows only too well on his township patrols that black areas never had electricity, that blacks lived in terror of crime as if there was no moonlight everything was pitch black at night in the townships. People lived in fear of the SADF but also of the dark if they are forced to go out at night when there was no curfew enforced by the likes of “Sam” Sole.
The persistent propaganda and subtle oh so subltle manipulation of the facts causes the reading public to start questioning their own perception of facts on the ground or of the intentions of those who claim to have fought for their liberation – this is deliberate as the journalists who indulge in this subltle manipulation knows it will sow doubts in people’s minds and make them lose confidence in their own perceptions of what is true and wholesome in black society as they are bombarded in a very subtle and sometimes very crude ways as to how corrupt black businessmen and government leaders are.
The endgame is to make black degrade their own culture and self-esteem and turn blacks into duplicates of Chika Onyeane. As I have stated if you sow the wind you will surely reap the whirlwind as all our actions have consequences. It is only those who are not loyal to their country who have no consideration for humanity who attempts to create chaos in society. ‘Sam” Sole and Adriaan Basson must know that creating chaos in society is worst than murder because when there is chaos in society such as in war or during an insurrection such as happened in July 2021 innocent lives get lost.
When this happen no ” Sam” Sole or Adriaan Basson can claim innocence when their very words lead to that chaos. To be a journaslis it is great responsibility and when doctors take an oath the first thing is to pledge ” do not harm” and this should be the first rule o of thumb that any responsible journalist should honour because for too long has journalists created chaos doing their masters’ bidding, they themselves being manipulated to manipulate the publc. It is so pathetic when one reads the Ukraine propaganda how many Russian planes or drones they shot down. When Russia bombed civilians News24 and AmaBhungae had an outcry but when Israel bombed civilians they were presented as innocent victims of collateral damage due to Israels right to self-defence. AmaBhungane persisted as well as to use the Israeli propaganda terms that Israeli’s are killed but when it comes to Palestinians it is reported they died.
The same subltle use of words such as terrorist was used by anti-ANC newspapers but those who attempted to be neutral used the words freedom-fighters or guerillas instead of the pejorative terrorists. “Sam” Sole and Adriaan Basson are both masters of such deception and sadly most readers are not able to distinguish these sublte nuances in the use of certain words. One thing is certain Adriaan Basson and “Sam” Sole knows their social psychology very well.
The great danger of thes nefarious activities is that their standard operating procedure is to perform this over an extended period of time by starting off with 100% simple factual information which is easily verifiable and then the start after a long period with subltle manipulation that causes the public to start question the conclusion of their own thoughts, their perception of facts on the ground , or good memories of the past which they start to question whether they were confusing themselves. This deviousness results in confusion in the reading public but also loss of confidence and self-esteem as blacks as you are bombarded with negative stereotypes of blacks but worst blacks begin to hate themselves becoming convinced they are not as good as whites.
In the final end results the less discerning reader then becomes dependent upon these authors to seek validity for themselves as these publications have thus become so controlling that readers become dependent upon them. When this stage is reached the ability to exert power over the reader become manifest in society.
Propaganda and information manipulation is a tactic that seeks to undermine society’s perception of reality on the ground. This causes the readers whom it is intended upon to start to question their perceptions of reality and their interpretations of actuallity .
You become afterwards so discouraged about the democratically elected government you end up voting for a party that will compromise your constitutional rights and you would not even complain and would actually seek out excuses to justifiy it which can be likened to the Stockholm Syndrome, like a turned terrorist like Alfred Nofemela and Joe Mamasela who became more enthusiastic then the whites in the Vlakplaas hit squads.
During the anti-Apartheid struggle we had a highly politically conscientised youth and many workshops were held to perish these propaganda attempts by the National Party aligned press. Political parties should regularly have public rallies and constituency meetings and one of the standing items on the agenda should always be media awareness in order to cultivate a critical reading public.
Blatant fake news and manipulation of the facts are the cornerstones of propaganda to achieve regime change or to ensure the parochial interests of the monied classes are maintained. When Adriaan Basson and “Sam” Sole eagerly does their duty as propaganda functionaries they are actually serving higher unseen interests, they are mere cogs in the wheel thinking they are protecting democracy. Where was
The type of writing that Adriaan Basson and “Sam” Sole does is meant to right history in their favour e.g if “Sam” Sole was to trip you and you fall hurting yourself he will later write that he tried to grab hold of you when you stumbled on a rock but was unable to catch you to prevent you falling and hurting yourself. This is all too often the kind of balderdash we see from Adriaan Basson and “Sam” Sole and they do it shamelessly and then expect us to believe they are acting in the public interest. Yeah right!!
Adriaan Basson and “Sam”Sole disingenously publisize the fact that they care about South Africa’s people but they try to achieve that by spreading false rumours about every black who achieves success. Sadly they seem to con a lot of people especially the youth with their twisted stories. As I have written before a picture of Arch-bishop Tutu walking on the water was published under the heading ” Tutu walks on water” and the Burger published the same photo under the heading ” Tutu can’t swim”, and “Sam” Sole is still at it, the business to discredit any achievements of any black leader, and he is violently denying my charges. I am sure. I think he protests too much.
Another egregious tactic is to twist his writing in such a way as to make the reading public think many other people agree with im that Zuma is a crook , or Sam Nujoma or Robert Mugabe. “Sam” Sole could not take it that Mugabe was one of the most respected leaders nay the MOST RESPECTED leader in Africa and he made sure that his readers get a different view by ensuring he slanders the dignity of that great man who fought for liberty against oppression.
Everyone is against corruption and crookery and dishonesty and Adriaan Basson and his acolyte “Sam” Sole knows it and thus they distract the public by assautling the dignity of a certain black leader by distracting the reader with overwhelming him/her with a story of corruption. If Zuma was corrupt and there is evidence I have no problem if it is reported but it can be reported in a manner not denigrating the dignity of that great man. Yet Adriaan Basson and his acolyte “Sam” Sole cannot wait for opportunities of corruption and wrongdoing in order to apply their characteric poison pens to assault the dignity of our black leaders.
They do it in such a fashion to make the reading public believe by exposing this corruption we are saving you the reader as taxpayer millions in lost public funds. In the meantime they are using this opportunity to undermine the dignity of the black leader but surruptitiously the dignity of all blacks.
The rotten and devious tricks in their arsenal of public manipulation is to always shift the blame for any wrongdoing on the democratically elected ANC black dominated government. People are made to forget we do not have an ANC government but a ANC dominated government. Loadshedding is something which the ANC inherited, the national debt is something the ANC inherited, crime is something the ANC inherited yet blame is always shifted to the ANC dominated government asif they were the masters of all our problems and if they are gone we will be in Nirvana. People are subltly and not so subltly persuaded that if you don’t vote ANC in 2024 your life will get better and under the ANC now it is battered or bitter.
Of course if Adriaan Basson and his lackey “Sam” Sole reads this article of mine they will deny any wrongdoing trying to convince the public they are fighting on behalf of our beautiful country when they actually mean the country of the National Party they are hankering after the days when white was right, when white was king.But hey they are doing it for the good of the country aint that true? Thats what they want you to believe but I hope our youth knows better now. Their vitriol towards blacks they couch in beatiful language of compassion for the poor, care for the disadvantaged youth , love for the aged etc so that people overlook the real aim of their poisonous vitriolic penmanship.
At no stage did “Sam” Sole attempt to join End Conscription Campaign at not stage did he show any contempt for Apartheid and the brutal killing of thousands of youth who resisted it, at not stage did Stephen Patrick Sole attempt assist those oppressed by Apartheid, why should he when it guaranteed a white man a standard of living so high for his level of achievement. Only under Apartheid could a white factory worker own a holiday home or a fishing boat and a caravan at a time when a black engineer could notget a job in this country.
Masibongwe Sihlahla
Independent Writer and Political Analyst
Founder and Chairman CONCERNED YOUNG PEOPLES FORUM OF RSA YOUTH RISING CAMPAIGN National Coordinator
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1 comment
Masibongwe Sihlahla is one of the most fearless political analysts in this country, telling it like it is.