Miffed Mac mauls media

For more:

• Mail & Guardian: Maharaj lashes out at journalists over Madiba health reports ... Media interest in the former president's state of health is massive, not surprisingly - and that, or perhaps the way he perceives they are doing their job - has apparently upset Mac Maharaj.

  What some people in the media reckon, however, is that those tasked with keeping the media and public up to date with Madiba's state of health seem to be making the same mistakes that they acknowledged they made some time back when Madiba was admitted to hospital previously.

  Information is coming out in dribs and drabs, some is being withheld on the basis of doctor-patient confidentiality, and Zuma himself told us something we all know, namely that he is not a doctor, when asked about the former president's health.

  Well, how about this for an idea... What about having one of the medical team, or even better the team leader, alongside Mac or whomever, to be on hand to answer questions of a strictly medical nature? Just an idea.

  That way, media and everyone else will be less likely to speculate on Madiba's health, surely.

• Mail & Guardian: Zuma briefing turns into electioneering... Displaying far greater readiness to provide information than what media want regarding Nelson Mandela's health status, Zuma turned what was touted as a press briefing into an electioneering punt for his party ahead of next year's election.

  Even better, perhaps, is that ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu is reported to have told the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) gathering that "the ANC would start meeting monthly with journalists in the run-up to the elections."

  "That way you'll know what we're thinking before you write ... you may not like it, but you'll know it," he is quoted as saying.

  The acid test, of course, is: will the media believe it?

  Case in point: Zuma defended his much maligned minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, telling what seems to have been a somewhat underwhelmed gathering that Angie (a staunch Zuma supporter, by the way) "is doing very well. She has a very clear understanding of the job she must do."

  Some of her many critics might ask: "Well why doesn't she do it then?"

  So let's hear it for those upcoming media briefings from the party that has brought you e-tolling, and much else besides - the POIB for example.