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BRIDGING THE GAP: AN ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA 23 YEARS INTO DEMOCRACY Onkgopotse JJ Tabane [Student Number: 953116] Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Media Studies University of the Witwatersrand Supervisor: Professor Glenda Daniels APRIL 2020 RESEARCH QUESTION: HOW DO MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS AFFECT GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS AND HOW CAN BRIDGES BE BUILT BETWEEN THEM? DECLARATION I declare that this is my original work and all information contained herein is to my knowledge accurate and correctly attributed where relevant. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the following people who supported me in the pursuit of this PhD: My wife, Innocent Nonhlanhla Xaba, for your unwavering support over the years and your unconditional love. My parents, Helen and Mathew Tabane, for bringing me up to be resilient. My siblings, Dr Keorapetse Tabane and Gabaiphiwe Tabane, for your unflinching support. My supervisor, Professor Glenda Daniels, for your insightful and scholarly guidance to complete the project through its challenges. My former producer at Power 987, Bongekile Skosana, for letting me ‘abuse your show’ to experiment. My research assistant, Ms Nompumelelo Runji. My friend, Dr Dithoto Modungwa, for spiritual encouragement throughout the journey. Special thanks to Phindile Xaba, Claudia Boffard and Lomile Mokoka for your assistance in editing this PhD and preparing it for final submission. 2 ABSTRACT This study examines the complex relationship between the media and the government in South Africa during 23 years of democracy, from 1994 to 2017. It analyses the evolution of such relations during this post-apartheid period, examining the perceived tensions between the media and the government. By extension, this also includes relations between the media and the ruling party African National Congress (ANC) – and the impact this has had on the ability of the government to communicate effectively with its citizens. This research further defines what is meant by the media and the government. The theoretical framework employed in this study focuses on the importance of communications in a democracy and the critical nature of media relations. This is both in helping to fulfil the obligation of the state to communicate as an intricate part of democratic governance, and its mandate as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Theoretical insights were drawn from the Habermasian public sphere to trace the origins of the tension between government and media in their bid to communicate with citizens (Habermas, 1964). Additionally, theorists such as Oyugu, Odhiambo, Chege & Gitonga (1988); Manyozo (2012); Nwagbara (2010) and Cheeseman (2019) aided the researcher to explore the African democratic perspective in order to unpack a decolonised paradigm of the public sphere. Data from previous studies, interviews with key role players, as well as the Frank Dialogues platform for debate between the media and the government communicators expanded the discourse analysis to answer the question - ‘How can the gap between the media and the government be bridged?’ The contribution of this thesis is an attempt at identifying tactics to build bridges between the government and the media, while forming a theoretical basis for the best manner to actualise this important intervention. The study concludes with key reflections on whether it is possible to improve relations between the media and the government. This will, thus, provide explorative suggestions to enhance government communications through, for example, development communication and unmediated communication. Key words: democracy, government communications, media, public sphere. 3 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to the late Parks Mankatlhana, who was the first presidential spokesperson of the first democratically elected South African President Nelson Mandela. 4 Contents DECLARATION 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2 ABSTRACT 3 DEDICATION 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS 10 CHAPTER 1 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 7 1.2.1 Main research question 7 1.2.2 Secondary questions 8 1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 8 1.3.1 INQUIRY INTO RACISM IN THE MEDIA (2000) 9 1.3.2 LAUNCH OF THE COMTASK REPORT (2000) 9 1.3.3 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ONLINE PUBLICATION, ANC TODAY (2001) 9 1.3.4 THE MAT CONUNDRUM IN 2008/9 9 1.3.5 PRESIDENT ZUMA’S LAWSUIT AGAINST CARTOONIST ZAPIRO, AND ‘THE SPEAR’ CONTROVERSY (2010) 10 1.4 RATIONALE 10 1.4.1 The rationale for this research can be summarised as follows: 12 1.5 LIMITATIONS 13 1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW 14 1.7 FIRST BODY OF LITERATURE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEMOCRACY 14 1.8 SECOND SET OF LITERATURE: UNDERSTANDING THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE STATE OF JOURNALISM IN SOUTH AFRICA 17 1.9 THIRD SET OF THE LITERATURE: FOCUS ON POLICY AND INVESTIGATION OUTCOMES 18 1.10 CHAPTER OUTLINE 20 CHAPTER 2 23 5 2.1 PUBLIC SPHERE 23 2.1 GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION MEDIA RELATIONS 26 2.1.1 Media role 26 2.1.2 Government role 28 2.2 DEMOCRARY 30 2.2.1 The media, government communication and African democracies 33 2.3 COMMUNICATIONS IN A DEMOCRACY 37 2.4 COMMUNICATIONS IN THIS DEMOCRACY: THE PRACTICE 37 2.5 THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATIONS IN A DEMOCRACY 38 2.6 MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE 41 2.6.1 The new system recommended by the Comcast Report 43 2.7 AGENDA SETTING THEORY 46 2.8 SA MEDIA FROM APARTHEID TO DEMOCRACY 49 3.1 RATIONALE 55 3.2 DATA COLLECTION 56 3.2.1 INTERVIEWS 56 3.3 DIALOGUES 63 3.3.1 FRANK DIALOGUES 63 3.4 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 66 4.1 INTRODUCTION 68 4.2 REVIEWING KEY RECOMMENDATIONS 70 4.2.1 Overview of Comtask recommendations 71 4.3 THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND AFRICA 77 4.6 CONCLUSION 79 CHAPTER 5 88 5.1 INTRODUCTION 88 5.2 CASE STUDY 1: RELATIONSHIP WITH EDITORS 92 5.2.1 Media Ownership and Diversity 93 5.2.2 Transformation of the Media 94 5.2.3 The Media and Government Communications 96 5.2.4 Mandela and Freedom of Expression 97 5.2.5 Building Bridges with the Media 97 5.3 CASE STUDY 2: THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL VERSUS PUBLIC INTEREST 98 5.4 REFLECTIONS 101 5.4.1 The impact of Mandela’s communications approach in society 102 6 5.4.2 Transformation of the media landscape 103 5.4.3 The quality of government communications 104 5.4.4 The policy impact: Preparing for the birth of a new era in government communications 104 5.4.5 Trial and error: Nurturing a new communications culture alongside building a new nation 105 5.4.6 Key lesson from Mandela: A long walk lies ahead 105 5.4.7 Consistency of communications between the media and the government 106 5.4.8 How did this relationship aid the government to communicate with citizens? 106 CHAPTER 6 110 6.1 INTRODUCTION 110 6.2 INTRODUCING ALTERNATIVE PLATFORMS OF COMMUNICATION 111 6.3 WHERE IT ALL BEGUN 115 6.4 THROUGH RACE-TINTED GLASSES 117 6.5 THE BIRTH OF THE GCIS: FEW OR NO BIRTH PAINS 119 6.6 THE PARANOIA AGAINST THE MEDIA 120 6.7 HIV AIDS – A DEFINING MATTER 122 6.8 ZIMBABWE’S QUIET DIPLOMACY: FURTHER DAMAGE TO GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA RELATIONS 124 6.9 CONCLUSION 127 CHAPTER 7 128 7.1 INTRODUCTION 128 7.1.1 The Arms Deal Saga 130 7.1.2 Alleged rape charges 132 7.1.3 Corruption Charges 132 7.1.4 Nkandla Homestead Security Upgrades 133 7.1.5 Cabinet reshuffling 134 7.1.6 His close relations with the controversial Gupta-family 135 7.2 STARTING FROM THE BEGINNING: WHERE WAS THE SEED OF HOSTILITY PLANTED? 139 7.3 THE ZUMA ADMINISTRATION’S APPROACH TO RELATIONS WITH THE MEDIA 142 7.3.1 The destruction of the GCIS 142 7.3.2 Failure to Implement the Comtask Recommendations 145 7 7.4 THE MEDIA’S PERCEPTION OF THE ZUMA ADMINISTRATION 147 7.4.1 A Trust Deficit 147 7.4.2 A propensity to elicit satire and ridicule 149 7.5 LACK OF DIVERSITY– CORRECT DIAGNOSIS, POOR MEDICINE 151 7.6 CONCLUSION 153 CHAPTER 8 157 8.1 DISCUSSION 157 8.1.1 SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS 157 8.1.2 ANALYSIS 161 8.1.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 164 8.2 FRANK DIALOGUES 166 8.2.1 On bridging the gap between government and the media 166 8.3 CONCLUSION 172 9.1 THE THEORY 177 9.1.1 The extent of access (as close to universal as possible) 180 9.1.2 The degree of autonomy (citizens must be free from coercion). 181 9.1.3 The rejection of hierarchy (so that all might participate on an equal footing). 181 9.2 RECOMMENDATIONS ON BRIDGING THE GAP 182 9.2.1 Recommendations by government communicators and journalists 183 9.3 RECOMMENDATIONS AT A GLANCE 186 9.3.1 Recommendations for government 186 9.3.2 Recommendations for the media 195 9.4 CONCLUSION 197 Bibliography 199 8 LIST OF DIAGRAMS AND TABLES Diagram 1: Communications tension triangual pivot diagram 7 TABLE 1: Differences between qualitative and quantitative research 53 TABLE 2: Semi-Structured Interviews With Former CEOs/Deputy COEs Of The Government Communication And Information Systems 55 TABLE 3: Semi - structured interviews with government spokespersons 56 TABLE 4: Analysts and thought leaders in government communications and media 58 TABLE 5: Political editors chosen from South African daily and weekly newspapers 60 TABLE 6: Frank Dialogues participants session 1 62 TABLE 7: Frank Dialogues participants session 3 63 TABLE 8: Structure of government communication in Zimbabwe 70 TABLE 9: South Africa government communication structure. 71 Table 10: Comtask recommendations: An exposition 80 TABLE 11: Some of the key areas that Zuma’s administration failed on.
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