Although this election is being seen as the most hotly contested since 1994, newspaper editors say there seems to be little difference between political parties.
Under apartheid, newspapers were direct about which side of the political spectrum they supported.
Neither Business Day nor its sister paper, The Weekender, has taken a political position ahead of this election. “I find myself two days before the elections not knowing who to vote for,” said Business Day editor Peter Bruce, who endorsed the United Democratic Movement in 1999, when he edited the Financial Mail.
“After what the ANC (African National Congress) did to the Scorpions, I wouldn't endorse them. And I don't like how the DA (Democratic Alliance) has ended their campaign with ‘Stop Zuma'.” As for the Congress of the People, “on the policy front, I haven't seen anything different. I want to see how they stand up to defeat, see whether they have guts and staying power”, he said.
Weekender executive editor Rehana Rossouw said this was the first time the paper had had to decide about endorsement. “We felt there wasn't any party in the country that offered voters the prospect of deep and lasting change to the way our society is structured,” she said.
While several US newspapers endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign, in SA there was a different situation as elections were for parties, not individuals, she said.
The Mail & Guardian — which has endorsed the ANC in the past — has refused to support a party this year and has instead called for active political engagement from voters.
“What we are endorsing is a victory of active choice over submission to the working out of political identities frozen in place after 1994,” the paper said in its editorial last week
Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said South African media had a broader role to play than party political allegiance.
“There is a much greater role for the media to play for the next five years. We need to offer much broader direction and analysis rather than tying ourselves to someone,” he said.
Ray Hartley, editor of the Sunday Times' sister paper The Times, said the paper followed the Sunday Times' lead and so had not endorsed any party.
“It's ineffective to tell readers what to vote. We like to think of ourselves as an independent newspaper,” he said.
The Citizen's editor, Martin Williams, said in an editorial last month, “I am not sure readers are particularly swayed by the opinions of newspapers.”
Williams said he had striven to open up the paper to a wide range of political views.
Source: Business Day
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