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Time Magazine choosing sides

The bias of Scott MacLeod

I found this letter going through old documents and decided to publish it as I still found it interesting.

The ANC, of course, won the national elections of 1994 while Inkatha took kwaZulu-Natal and the Nats the Western Cape. MK eventually got integrated into the SANDF, but many of the ex-terrorists still live a life of crime with their AK-47's.

Inkatha formed a coalition government with the ANC in kwaZulu-Natal after the 1999 elections which prompted me to find a new political home in the DP who formed a coalition government with the Nats in the Western Cape. They later joined forces as the DA.

When the Nats withdrew from the DA recently, they entered into an alliance with the ANC at around the same time as Inkatha broke ranks with the ANC in kwaZulu-Natal. Mangosutho Buthelezi still remains a member of Mbeki's cabinet though...

The letter wasn't published in Time and I obviously never got any response. At least I never renewed my subscription.

3 January 2003

Dear Sir

The most ridiculous part, without doubt, is the implication that the security forces in collusion with Inkatha engulf the ANC in factional bloodletting in order to disrupt the latter's ability to build a strong political machine.

In reality the situation is reversed. Since the signing of the Peace Accord in September last year, there has been 587 attacks on Inkatha members, 376 of them fatal. Most of them were leadership figures on local level. It is quite obvious that Inkatha is the target of a systematic programme of assassination and attack.

MacLeod reckons it was the Boipatong massacre that prompted Mandela to break off talks. If it were the case his (Mandela) bona fides should be questioned. Boipatong was rather a very convenient windfall and excuse. More than 7,000 people have died violently since the unbanning of the ANC, and this year alone more than a hundred policemen. Furthermore, 27 Inkatha men, women and children were massacred less than two weeks before Boipatong, at the Crossroads squatter camp on the Rand.

MacLeod must always bear in mind that in this civil war we have two sides

Mandela is addressing the symptoms while the cause is not only being neglected, but has also worsened (through mass action for example).

MacLeod must always bear in mind that in this civil war we have two sides: one side that has been trained as killers in Africa, the Soviet Union and elsewhere, had a policy of violence against its opponents and still possesses an army; while the other has always been in favour of a peaceful solution without violence of any nature.

Now he wants to tell me that the doves are killing the hawks - how naïve!

The whole article is apologetic for and subtly supportive of ANC policy and propaganda. No mention is made of the fact that every other week senior ANC officials are caught in (or in possession of) police uniforms. I can assure you that they don't use it for fancy dress parties!

There's also nothing about MK in the article

There's also nothing about MK in the article. The Peace Accord is almost a year old, but still the ANC has got its own private army with all its arms caches and trained guerrillas.

Unfortunately I just renewed my subscription for another two years and have no guarantee that the rest of the magazine isn't also a big load of garbage.

Yours sincerely

Jaco Strauss