Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Part 2 of Politicsweb's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Part 1 is here . In this post I give perspectives on its evolution to the far-right media space. Around the world the right has denied and downplayed the coronavirus pandemic. For two months reports circulated Donald Trump was warned in January but dismissed it. Newly released memos confirm former economic adviser Peter Navarro warned the “coronavirus had the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and derail the US economy unless tough action were taken immediately”. Now Trump's  looking for a scapegoat as US deaths grow, blaming WHO. (See here and here .) But as the catastrophe is evident with rising infections and deaths daily, the right propagate misinformation (it's a Chinese virus), conspiracies ( a Chinese plan for world domination ) and tout unproven remedies like  hydroxychloroquine  as a cure.  In South Africa the right and far-right are a marginal but noisy group almos...

I wrote here of South African media's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Here I state Politicsweb is pushing a dangerous denialism of the pandemic. Politicsweb, like other South African media, ignored the coronavirus pandemic until the last minute . While the world shuts down and is in a state of war with an unseen enemy, which doesn’t care about political ideology, it’s predictably using the virus to promote its far-right agenda and pushing a dangerous denialism of the coronavirus. (Disclosure: PW published my unsolicited articles until 2018.) Editor James Myburgh (PhD political science, Oxon ) seldom writes articles or editorials but in the past two weeks wrote two ( here and here ) questioning aspects of the world’s and South Africa’s strategy to fight the virus especially lockdowns. PW columnists, regulars and occasionals – Jeremy Gordin , Andrew Donaldson , John Kane-Berman , IRR CEO Frans Cronje and far-right denialist, conspiracy theorist and eccentric Ivo Vegte...

International media covered the coronavirus pandemic and the disease it causes, Covid-19, from the time it came to the attention of the west in January. I’ve been following the story since then. It was lead story, particularly in The Guardian and usually second lead in the New York Times, which like US media primarily focuses on local issues. However, since the virus took hold in the west to epidemic proportions it was the main lead. South African society, government and media – mainstream and independents – largely ignored it until late February when South African citizens in Wuhan were expatriated. Before this the virus and its spread around the world received little attention. Initially even the government considered the plight of citizens in wuhan and their pleas to be brought home as not important and said they were safe there in the Chinese’s care. That and the virus’ spread around the world from China was relegated it to foreign news. This was reflected in the attitude...

I've been saying the alarmist and irresponsible exaggeration about expropriation without compensation (EWC) , mainly from IRR and right-of-centre media BizNews (BN) and Politicsweb (PW), is that South Africa as a nation, its history, constitution and expropriation legal framework are not anything like Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and, and ... I said the worst was expected, mainly by whites, of a black government and blacks after 1994 but nothing came to pass as they feared. Black people forgave if not forgot. It was a political deal that whites and especially white monopoly capital, what Sampie Terreblance called "Mineral Energy Complex", kept their often ill-gotten apartheid wealth and status upon which their present day prosperity is built. Only 1% of whites live in poverty compared to 63% blacks and 44% brown. But who is shouting the loudest about a very slim potential of Zimbabwe-type land grabs, which Ramaphosa and the bill says shall not happen? Right wing an...

The IRR is making the most noise about expropriation without compensation (EWC) and the change to section 25 of the constitution. Almost every week one of its members/writers, particularly its head of research Anthea Jeffery, writes about it, nothing new but essentially the same article. It's agreed changing the constitution, which was approved by a vote in the National Assembly led by the EFF (it was their proposal) and ANC, which meekly followed and adopted as its own policy, and the bill (public comment on the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill has been extended by a month until February 29), unwise and will damage confidence in the country and its economy. But the reaction especially from IRR has been exaggerated about the impact, namely, South Africa might turn into Zimbabwe or Venezuela where similar polices were adopted that contributed to their economic ruin. The only reasonable analysis from them was CEO Frans Cronje's, who's generally milder than his redu...

I've often said the middle class sit in their wonders of motoring engineering, sealed off from the world and don't see the poor, unemployed and homeless. But if they're observant, they don't need to walk for a change, as Institute of Race Relations' Michael Morris did, to see them. Instead, in their middle class bubbles, they choose to ignore the signs, and in Morris' case, the specific graffito that sparked his musings that "whites must face our [South Africa's] history ". The IRR-affiliated  Centre for Risk Analysis' quality of life index that whites have the highest standard of living of South Africa's population groups is already known and evident. It's in the low poverty level for that group of 1%, and less than 10% (8% in 2014) of whites are unemployed . So what are they and IRR especially complaining about? All South Africans - not only whites - are dissatisfied with the incompetent and corrupt ANC government and dismal s...

Premier Alan Winde wrote an op-ed in Daily Maverick about the auditor-general's (AG) purported "standards" that's allegedly preventing the Western Cape from meeting their service delivery objectives ( Service Delivery Must Take Precedence Over Compliance ).  His predecessor Helen Zille said much the same including in her DM column. This is either misinformation, ignorance or deliberate lies about the role and objectives of the auditor and audit respectively. Ironically, while the DA-run WC complain about the AG, they crow from the rooftops about the number of clean audits the AG gives them, showing their hypocrisy. A further irony is not even the ANC - corruption central - complains about the AG. What does that say about the DA's sour grapes. I don't understand them. It appears like his predecessor, Winde and WC staffs don't understand what an auditor does. Zille complained about staff allegedly quaking before the AG's "wrath" (sic). Wh...