Analysis: Wa Afrika's arrest, a bigger picture
5 Aug 2010
The big questions behind Wednesday's melodramatic arrest of Sunday Times journalist, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, cast an ominous shadow over South Africa's fragile grip on democracy.
As we write this, the exact whereabouts of Mzilikazi wa Afrika are still unknown. Erik van den Berg, lawyer for the Sunday Times, says they know he was booked into the Watervalboven police station at 5:30pm on Wednesday, 4 August 2010. Then he was booked out. He has not been booked in anywhere else in Mpumalanga.
Needless to say, this uncertainty really gives this story the fear factor. No lawyer has yet been to see Wa Afrika. Is that what the country ruled by the "greatest liberation movement" in the world has come to? This is behaviour reminiscent of one of the worst kinds of government - the one we thought we had relegated to history in 1994.
Strangely, the spin side of "Operation Arrest Wa Afrika" has been much quicker.
Continue reading the full analysis on www.thedailymaverick.co.za.
For more:
- Capital: Newspaper seeks urgent interdict to free journalist
- Times Live: Sunday Times: Police guilty of detention without trial
- News24.com: Mystery surrounds journo's case
- Times Live: Mzilikazi wa Afrika case thrown out of court
- The Wild Frontier (Ray Hartley's blog): The ANC must be fuming at the police right now. Read on ...
- TechCentral.co.za: Slippery slope to repression
- ANC.org.za: discussion paper on media transformation, ownership and diversity
- Bizcommunity special section: special focus on media freedom
- Bizcommunity Twitterfall: #ZAmediafreedom
- Google News Search: Protection of Information Bill media appeals tribunal
- Twitter Search: #ZAmediafreedom
- Google Blog Search: Protection of Information Bill media appeals tribunal
Source: Daily Maverick
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About Stephen Grootes: @StephenGrootes
Stephen Grootes is political reporter for Eyewitness News (www.ewn.co.za) and contributing editor for Business Day (www.businessday.co.za). He used to write for The Daily Maverick (www.thedailymaverick.co.za). Follow him on Twitter at @StephenGrootes.
