Agang launch - all balloons and bluster?

Well, at least, I thought, she might be on part of the page - but no, instead she was banished to page two, beaten to the lead story by one on yet another shady empowerment deal!

In fact the photo op for the front page went to a brilliant photo of dancers at a Cape Town event to make the centenary of the 1913 Natives Land Act - not Agang's leader in full cry. Madiba's health and more on our erstwhile Communications Minister made up the rest of the page.

Now some of you might think okay, so if you don't make it to page one then surely two is cool. You would be wrong. Research shows that page three in fact is the better page in terms of likelihood of being read. And the big story there was on poor Nigella and her 'domineering' husband...

Adding insult to injury

To add insult to injury Dr R didn't even get the biggest headline on page two. This was reserved for the ousted chief whip. She shared the page with four other stories, the weather and the Lotto results.

The story wasn't even just about the launch but more about the fact that she may join forces with Bantu Holomisa's UDM (United Democratic Movement) whose whole four seats in parliament will make a big difference to her party...

But she has announced that the Benenson Strategy Group that helped US President Barack Obama to win in 2008 will be helping Agang in their election campaign and the way it looks now she will need all the help she can get. When asked where the money was coming from for this, Agang policy director Mills Soko, in the true spirit of openness, refused to talk about the cost other than to say "They are not doing it for free."

Many of my colleagues arrived at Saturday's launch with great expectations of scoops and were excited when they had a peek inside the luxurious VIP tent, until they realised that the wonderful food and booze inside was not for them but for - well, VIP's.

It helps to be on time

Who was hiding inside was their first thought? Well, she did say she would announce some big names associating themselves with her party. The flaps of the tent were opened and out came (drum roll here) former UNISA vice-chancellor Barney Pityana - so no scoop there then...

It also didn't help that Dr Ramphele's speech was given after a delay of 90 minutes. The official excuse was they were waiting for some supporters who were coming by bus. Shades of the ANC.

So big launch, lots of shouting about what's wrong with the current government - nothing we don't already know. Telling us corruption is at the heart of the problem our country faces today is nothing new to us. Stealing and failure of political will - ditto. That our economy is failing - again not news.

Now don't get me wrong I, like so many other South Africans would more than welcome another sturdy opposition party to the ANC but somehow I'm not getting excited about Agang. As Eusebius McKaiser said in a recent column, there's nothing wrong with keeping the DA on its toes but so much will depend on whether Agang can really convince the voter or even more importantly the young South Africans I'm regularly meeting who tell me they're so disillusioned with SA politics they're not going to vote...

If you can't make the front page...

It's easy to say what's wrong but where is the infrastructure and who are the people who will be in place to put things right?

And if you can't even hit the front page of the Sunday Times with your launch then you've got problems.

The golden rule of making headlines is to be able to tell the reader something they don't already know and the rule for making the front page of the Sunday Times is 'outdo any current corruption story'... And that takes some doing.

It's not enough to be a highly acclaimed academic and former political activist - you have to know how to run a more than highly successful campaign - ask COPE! There has to be more than balloons and banners. There has to be solid proof that you CAN make a difference.

She mentioned using technology in this campaign. Well Dr. Ramphele I've just checked on Twitter and the last post from you was on 22 June. So as they say in rugby, 'use it or lose it'...