Page 187 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

cilitators of democracy and African cultural self-determination is closely linked
both to structures of ownership and to diversi¤cation of production (Baker
2000; Netshitenzhe 1999).
One of the strongest voices on behalf of traditional African religions and
¤ercest critics of discriminatory practices by political and religious authorities
has been Nokuzola Mndende. A former parliamentarian and freelance presenter
turned educational consultant, and armed with higher degrees in religious stud-
ies to boot, she has campaigned forcefully to expose the racism “now clothed in
religious attire” (Mndende 1999). Because of the failure to include ATR in edu-
cational policies, civic events, and the Truth Commission, Mndende refers to
the present government as “nothing else but Christianity at prayer.” She vehe-
mently criticizes the SABC for referring to indigenous African religions as “mi-
nority religions” and for not censoring the negative portrayals of these religions
in their programming. 30
Mndende (1999, 48) strategically resorts to rights talk when criticizing the
then chair of the Human Rights Commission (Anglican cleric Dr. Barney Pit-
yana) for disbelieving that there are Africans who can practice African religion
without Christianity: “How can we speak of human rights when my right to
believe and my freedom to practice my religion is still controlled and despised?”
In the same vein, she opines that “to de¤ne African Religion from a Christian
perspective violates the rights of its followers to have complete freedom of re-
ligion: when a particular way of seeing the truth is imposed on others it violates
their freedom to seek the truth” (49).
The RBP has also had to deal with complaints from several religious groups
about the scheduling of many religious programs on Sunday—to which SABC
replied that weekday evenings were reserved for prime-time programming
which religious programs did not ¤t into. In addition, the panel has received
requests from various groups to be treated as separate entities, as in the case of
31
the Mormon Church. While the RBP feels that it achieved some success in
transforming religious programming in the SABC, the panel made less headway
with radio broadcasting which is traditionally more decentralized and predomi-
nantly Christian. 32
While Muslim groups in South Africa have made advances in the political
and media spheres, in March 2000 concern was still being voiced about nega-
tive representations and reporting. A Muslim media group, Media Review Net-
work, reported to the South African Human Rights Commission in Johannes-
burg that the South African media were generating “Islamophobia” through
their demonizing and stereotyping, notably in connection with the bombings
33
in Cape Town. This is an ongoing problem, as evidenced by the group’s com-
ments to the SABC on the latter’s Draft Editorial Policies in 2003, notably re-
garding the “special vocabulary list” (“fundamentalist,” “extremist,” “fanatic,”
34
“terrorist,”) used by the media almost exclusively in reference to Muslims. The
Muslim community has also complained to the RPB about documentaries por-
traying Islam in a bad light (cf. Baderoon 1999).

176 Rosalind I. J. Hackett